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PRODUCING BROMIDES Nos. 1 - 4
Working as a producer over the years, one is given pieces of advice about the job that initially seem vague, counterintuitive, or just plain silly. But as time passes, these pearls of wisdom ultimately prove their worth... if one is smart enough to apply them. Here, then, are a few thoughts people have passed on to me that may read a bit Erma Bombeck-ish but which I think are worthwhile if contemplated correctly.
1. From producer and Focus Films co-president James Schamus a long time ago: When seeking financing for a film, don't get people to say "yes." Get them to say "no" and move on. (The one time I ignored this advice -- the one time I convinced myself that a somewhat flakey person's "yes" was truly a "yes" -- I was burned very badly.)
2. From French producer and now head of Euro script development org Moonstone International Jean-Luc Ormieres: Producing a film is like taking a train. You have to be at the right station at the right platform at the right time. (This one was repeated in my office today, but I won't say the context...)
3. Another one from Ormieres: When producing a film, you can gamble on the script, the director, or the cast -- but only one.
4. And finally, one from me: During moments of creative confusion, revert back to the director's first instinct. It's usually the correct one.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/24/2004 12:23:37 AM
TENDER IS THE EGO
Depressed screenwriters upset over their latest rejection should check out this unusual front page New York Times story detailing F. Scott Fitzgerald's failed Hollywood screenwriting career. Quoting documents just unearthed from the Fitzgerald estate and collected at the University of South Carolina, the story paints a portrait of an earnest, dedicated writer futilely struggling to balance art and studio politics on a succession of never-realized pictures. There are some great quotes in the piece -- Billy Wilder dubs Fitzgerald "a great sculptor who is hired to do a plumbing job" -- and the documents overall correct, in the words of University of South Carolina scholar Matthew Broccoli, "this distorted view of Fitzgerald's Hollywood years, the idea that he was just staggering around drunk all the time and not earning his salary." Indeed, the story describes Fitzgerald "drinking Coca-Cola by the case in a not entirely successful effort to stay off the hard stuff" while he scribbles away, earning $1,000 a week.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/22/2004 02:42:29 PM
BOND... ON THE Q.T.
Casino Royale
Via Elston Gunn's invaluable Weekly Recap in Ain't It Cool News comes this link to an online petition urging the once daring but now depressingly conservative Broccoli clan to accept Quentin Tarantino's offer to helm a remake of Casino Royale as the next James Bond film. Remembering pre-adolescent times when Bond films were the essence of forbidden entertainment, I put my name down. If you'd like to as well, click here.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/21/2004 04:11:07 PM
Organizers of the 57th Festival de Cannes, May 12-23, 2004, announced today the lineup for this year's Competition and Un Certain Regard, and the short films in Competition as well as the Cinefondation film school selection."Cannes 2004 is presenting 56 feature films," says Festival director Thierry Fremaux on the event's Web site. "There are a total of 46 world premieres in the combined sections, more than in 2003 and 2002. Furthermore, the Selection is presenting 9 first films, twice that of last year. The figure that stands out though is the number of films submitted: 3562 feature-length and short films. In 2003, there were 2498 (2281 in 2002, 1798 in 2001 and 1397 in 2000). Compared to last year, the number of films submitted has increased 42.5 percent. It was not so long ago, at the end of the '90s, that less than 1,000 films were the norm."
Among the newcomers to the Cannes Competition, Fremaux adds, are "Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (La Nina Santa), Korean Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) and Hong San-soo (La Femme est l'avenir de l'homme), Italian Paolo Sorrentino (Les consequences de l'amour), Agnes Jaoui (Comme une image) and Tony Gatlif (Exils) from France, as well as Apitchapong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady) -- discovered in the Certain Regard section in 2002 with Blissfully Yours -- marking the first time Thailand has a film in competition. And also Hans Weingartner (28 years old) who is bringing Germany back in the arena with his film Edukators. These film directors represent almost one half of the competition features."
"The Certain Regard section is quite different from the competition. [These] films present a particular perspective, whether the work of a young filmmaker or a confirmed auteur. In this regard, the young Austrian Jessica Hausner, Lea Fazer from Switzerland and Yang Chao from China will mingle with Sembene Ousmane from Senegal making a trip back to Cannes at the age of 83."
This year's Feature Film competition jury is comprised of director Quentin Tarantino (whose Kill Bill, Vol. 2 will screen out of competition), actresses Emmanuelle Beart (France), Tilda Swinton (UK) and Kathleen Turner (US), actor Benoit Poelvoorde (Belgium), writer Edwidge Danticat (US), directors Jerry Schatzberg (US) and Tsui Hark (Hong Kong), and Finish film critic Peter von Bagh.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/21/2004 02:07:51 PM
As reported in Variety today, Newmarket Films plans to release a director's cut of Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko in theaters this summer. Grossing a paltry $517,375 during its original theatrical release in late 2001-early 2002, just as the country was reeling from the attacks of 9/11, the film subsequently gained a sizeable cult audience playing midnights continuously at theaters around the country, despite having been released on DVD by 20th Century Fox, which reported sales of close to 1 million units.
The new cut, which will include 21 minutes of footage not in the original, premieres May 29 at the Seattle International Film Festival, after which Newmarket plans to release the film on up to 10 screens in that city as a test run for a wider national release.
"I want to see if we can play it in the malls and multiplexes," Newmarket's Bob Berney is quoted as saying, adding that the company (now flush with cash from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) plans a P&A campaign for Donnie Darko commensurate with a big-budget release.
"The re-release [of Donnie Darko]," says producer Adam Fields in Variety, "is a testament to the power of the homevideo and DVD market. We don't get many do-overs in life. But this was such a special and unique movie. It wasn't around long enough for people to find out what it was."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/21/2004 10:06:43 AM
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