Down and Dirty Pictures

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Down and Dirty Pictures Page 75

by Peter Biskind


  “This is so wonderful” and following: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “They thought it”: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.

  “It got a bad”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “We have to make changes” and following: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.

  “This film’s intended”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “God, that’s pretentious”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “Harvey went mad”: Betsy Sharkey, “The Brothers Miramax: Harvey and Bob,” New York Times, “Arts and Leisure,” 7/24/94.

  “I’m taking the film away” and following: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.

  “withheld the last payment”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “He got pretty nasty”: Howard Feinstein, AI, 10/10/03.

  “No one should be surprised”: Woolley, AI, 2/26/02.

  “Are we gonna” and following: Burkin, AI, 4/29/02.

  CHAPTER 3: RISKY BUSINESS

  Epigraph: Bernard, AI, 11/15/99.

  “We have to keep up” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “We were tired”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “I would come in”: Ray, AI, 12/16/98.

  “Why ties?”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.

  “If you locked Bingham up”: Pierson, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes, 90.

  “I always wanted us”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.

  “Jeff is an extraordinary” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “We were not going to make”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “I was never an entrepreneur”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “Amir was the first guy”: Michael Barker, AI, 11/15/99.

  “I always considered Amir”: Bart Walker, AI, 12/7/00.

  “pathological liar”: Deutchman, AI, 10/4/99.

  “Basically, everybody who comes in contact”: John Shestack, AI, 12/11/00.

  “the money that we”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “When we called Cinecom’s accountant”: Ismail Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.

  “I could kill you”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “It’s the filmmakers’ money”: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.

  “We stopped making films”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.

  “I don’t remember”: Amir Malin, AI, 10/22/03.

  “I would never”: Walker, AI, 10/22/03.

  “All those years”: Richard Abramowitz, AI, 2/14/01.

  “I think what you guys” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “Let’s fly to New York”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “The tapes are what did it” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “You create evening social activity” and following: Urman, AI, 10/31/01.

  “I’d love to work”: Confidential source.

  “I’m surrounded by people”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”

  “Alie, I just can’t” and following: Brantley, AI, 10/18/99.

  “It was an experiment.”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “The Italian films in particular”: Bernardo Bertolucci, AI, 5/26/03.

  “He owes us at least”: Kees Kasander, e-mail, 6/6/03.

  “modest success”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “I look like a fuckin’ ”: Earnhart, AI, 5/21/02.

  “Eve will smell this”: Confidential source.

  “You better be here” and following: Confidential source.

  “We went out to one”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “Miramax was maybe” and following: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/01.

  “New Line was cleaning up”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/01.

  “People take for granted”: Norton, AI, 8/8/02.

  “It was initially almost impossible”: Pollack, AI, 6/10/02.

  “the place where films”: Estes, AI, 10/29/99.

  “contains humiliation, abuse”: John Lyttle, Independent, 3/1/91.

  “AIDS was a life and death” and following: Todd Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.

  “The regional filmmaker”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.

  “I didn’t grow up” and following: Christine Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.

  “They were so sanctimonious” and following: Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.

  “That movie was an epiphany”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “We watched that movie”: Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.

  “Todd was this” and following: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “That’s when Ang” and following: Hope, AI, 10/15/03.

  “Christine and I would go”: Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.

  “With great reviews”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “wasn’t personally motivated”: Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.

  “Roger Ebert met Todd”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “Right after Truth or Dare”: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.

  “We proceeded to try”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.

  “Congratulations” and following: Deutchman, AI, 3/10/00.

  “Let’s compete against”: Claudia Eller, “What About Bob?” Los Angeles Times, 4/6/01.

  “It was a profitable film”: Rasmussen, AI, 3/31/01.

  “After incurring”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “What they were then”: Mark Lipsky, AI, 11/15/99.

  “The smarter filmmakers”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.

  “Here’s a million dollars back”: Bobby Newmyer, AI, 2/18/99.

  “In a deal for an acquisition”: Steinberg, AI, 2/21/00.

  “We inserted”: Lichter, AI, 10/2/98.

  “The reasons”: Bobby Newmyer, AI, 2/18/99.

  “We don’t want”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.

  “Newmyer signed a deal”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “David, you closed” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00, and confidential source.

  “Harvey threatened”: Schmidt, AI, 3/27/01.

  “There was a constant”: Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.

  “They couldn’t accept the idea”: Confidential source.

  “Like all IPOs”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.

  “The fact that:” Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.

  “I couldn’t believe it”: Jami Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies (New York: Harper Perennial, 1995), 215.

  “People would gush”: Anders, AI, 6/14/94.

  “Obviously, I think Park City”: John Anderson, Sundancing (New York: Avon, 2000), 1.

  “When you had movies”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “It was becoming clear”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.

  “It was an insane”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “Everybody liked Allison” and following: Ray Price, AI, 12/9/00.

  “She’s a human mood ring”: Peter Biskind, “Four Rooms,” Premiere, 12/95.

  “Critics are harder”: Ray Price, AI, 12/9/00.

  “Everybody was freaked out”: Linde, AI, 11/16/99.

  “Going in, I didn’t realize”: Richard Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.

  “the Faye Dunaway screening” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “The Vietnam War”: Tarantino, AI, 6/10/94.

  “I’d gone to the theater”: Deseret News Archives, 12/26/96.

  “We were always trying”: Kathy Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.

  “It changed my life” and following: Alexandre Rockwell, AI, 7/13/95.

  “You didn’t want to go”: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 220.

  CHAPTER 4: THE BUYING GAME

  Epigraph: Lisa Gubernick, “We Don’t Want to Be Walt Disney,” Forbes, 10/16/89.

  “People like Michael Barker”: Bernard, AI, 11/15/99.

  “He was kind”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “If Amir told me”: Ray, AI, 3/19/01.

  “It was nouveau” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “When Amir came”: Abramowitz, AI, 2/14/01.

  “There was plenty”: Deutchman, AI, 10/4/99.

  “What you did to people” and following: Ray, AI, 3/2/01.

  “I never had a negative” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “Just two guys released”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  �
��Who’s the closer?”: Schmidt, AI, 7/30/03.

  “They were penurious” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.

  “October was the kinder”: Confidential source.

  “It would have been”: Schmidt, AI, 6/9/00.

  “The guy was really”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.

  “It was frustrating”: Ray, 2/15/01.

  “I was the dumb kid”: Tarantino, AI, 4/9/94.

  “I didn’t go to film school”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “Before video, I would” and following: Roger Avary, AI, 5/2/02.

  “It just seemed as an actor”: Tarantino, AI, 4/9/94.

  “We were going to be”: Tarantino, AI, 4/4/94.

  “By this time”: Avary, AI, 5/2/02.

  “I was weeping by the end of it”: Roger Avary, AI, 5/2/02.

  “Every six months”: Tarantino, AI, 6/10/94.

  “Monte dropped the script” and following: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.

  “Live was going to commit”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.

  “I thought that Sundance” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “the nightmare that looms”: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”

  “It had to be personal”: Barbara Maltby, AI, 6/14/03.

  “There were a series” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 4/22/99.

  “When Redford gets”: Annick Smith, AI, nd.

  “Redford works”: Richard Pearce, AI, nd.

  “There’s nothing sinister”: Annick Smith, AI, nd.

  “I had a rigid”: Klein, AI, nd.

  “This issue has been” and following: Redford, AI, 11/13/90.

  “We’re sorry, but TriStar”: Confidential sources.

  “It’s a call I would have made”: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”

  “Well, if I’d known”: Confidential source.

  “Look, I know that” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 4/22/99.

  “It’s not my kind of movie”: Confidential source.

  “I’m gonna take my name off” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 5/2/02.

  “It took so long” and following: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”

  “They were making us” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “Harvey said to me”: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.

  “I was afraid” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “I didn’t make it for your wife!”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “I thought you hated the movie” Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 161.

  “What?” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03; and Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 160.

  “It’s a problem”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03; Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02; and Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 164.

  “I didn’t have to cut” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “When Reservoir Dogs came out”: Linde, AI, 11/16/99.

  “Miramax had fucked”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.

  “I thought they”: Lawrence Bender, AI, 2/3/03.

  “That’s pretty fucking cool”: Tarantino, AI, 4/4/94.

  “There wasn’t a day”: Vossler, AI, 7/11/94.

  “Also, she shouldn’t be a stickler”: Margie Rochlin, “Quentin Tarantino, Film-maker: Interview,” Playboy, 11/94.

  “Oh yeah, he wrote to Miramax”: Anders, AI, 11/17/98.

  “I’m thinking of doing” and following: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 218; AI, 11/15/99.

  “has lost its edge”: John Even Frook, “Miramax Paradiso,” Variety, 9/21/92.

  “Creditors were knocking down” and following: Tusk, AI, 1/31/00.

  “Bob would come around”: Burkin, AI, 4/29/02.

  “I used to go into”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”

  “Harvey was up shit’s creek.”: John Ptak, AI, 10/21/99.

  “They’re big on raiding” and following: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.

  “They were the kings” and following: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.

  “Harvey, if that’s the case”: Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 274.

  “Miramax was the happiest”: Ptak, AI, 10/21/99.

  “Without The Crying Game”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.

  “What do you think if Dil” and following: Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 7.

  “he’d do it if I cast”: Neil Jordan, AI, 5/6/03.

  “This is stupid.” and following: Woolley, AI, 4/16/03; Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 13.

  “It never occurred to anyone”: Lechner, AI, 5/31/01.

  “Why’s that?”: Woolley, AI, nd.

  “Is there any”: Confidential source.

  “I could have put Harvey”: Deutchman, AI, 9/17/99.

  “I was nervous”: Jordan, AI, 5/6/03.

  “Neil was very bruised” and following: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.

  “What happens in”: Confidential source.

  “It was”: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.

  “We were struggling” and following: Confidential source.

  “We never forced”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “The reason we wanted”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “We’re gonna spend” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.

  “We’re not gonna open”: Confidential source.

  “Bob was just aggressive”: Simon Perry, AI, 3/5/02.

  “He was always talking”: Confidential source.

  “That was a big”: Nik Powell, AI, 2/23/02.

  “C’mon guys” and following: Confidential source.

  “I kept away”: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.

  “Our deal was never”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.

  “It was kicking around”: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.

  “Investing a million”: Jeffrey Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.

  “These guys don’t”: Ptak, AI, 10/23/99.

  “Hey, call Harvey Weinstein” and following: Confidential source.

  “We said, ‘Hey”: Chris McGurk, AI, 5/1/01.

  “Michael did not want”: Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.

  “We’d had a couple”: McGurk, AI, 5/1/01.

  “The handwriting was”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.

  “You had a situation”: McGurk, AI, 8/27/01.

  “You’re gonna pay ’em” and following: Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.

  “People were calling me”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.

  “Wait, we don’t” and following: Rob Moore, AI, 5/1/00.

  “I said to Wells”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.

  “Eisner was so concerned”: Joe Roth, AI, 5/1/00.

  “I finally found someone”: Confidential source.

  “What they do”: Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.

  “Michael Eisner can’t make me”: Ken Auletta, “Beauty and the Beast,” New Yorker, 12/16/02.

  “When you see Bob or Harvey”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”

  “How many films has Miramax” and following: Ptak, AI, 2/9/99.

  “The film we admired so much”: Louis Malle, interviewed by James Greenberg, c. 1994, unpublished.

  CHAPTER 5: HE’S GOTTA HAVE IT

  Epigraph: Smith, AI, 2/15/00.

  “That was a big deal”: Hope, AI, 6/10/01.

  “It was that Go Fish” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “In the acquisition”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.

  “When Miramax got” and following: Bowles, AI, 6/7/00.

  “There was a great suspicion”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.

  “Hong Kong?”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “The motto at Miramax”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.

  “After a whole day”: Amy Israel, AI, 5/1/01.

  “Miramax could afford”: McGurk, AI, 8/27/01.

  “My attitude was”: Foley, AI, 7/13/01.

  “Harvey has to see it” and following: Confidential source.

  “after telling everybody”: Estes, 10/29/99.

  “The Miramax people went nu
ts” and following: Urman, AI, 10/31/01.

  “scene in The Good”: redacted from David Carr, “The Emperor Miramaximus,” New York, 11/26/01.

  “worked. It really dried up” and following: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.

  “As the risks became greater”: Grillo, AI, 4/10/01.

  “One of the things”: Ethan Hawke, AI, 10/28/02.

  “Shaye said”: David O. Russell, AI, 8/30/01.

  “I felt like I’d missed”: Russell, AI, 10/25/02.

  “I made a movie that said”: Russell, AI, 10/25/02.

  “Seeing that movie”: Kevin Smith, Pierson, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes, 173–74; AI, 12/18/01.

  “This is not a Disney movie”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “The perception was that”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “I lost all of Martin Lawrence’s business”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 6/8/02.

  “That’s a really hateful” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.

  “Miramax was the premier” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.

  “I’m amazed that nobody” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “Great fuckin’ movie”: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.

  “Mr. Weinstein, it’s an honor”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.

  “We’d read a lot” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.

  “I had no interest”: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01; Frontline documentary, 5/01.

  “You’d never be able”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.

  “No matter how grounded”: Hope, AI, 6/10/01.

  “It felt like movies”: Manne, AI, 10/28/01.

  “The attendance was huge”: Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.

  “That ’94 festival”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.

  “the competition was drawing Hollywood”: Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.

  “Gary Beer was really successful”: Lory Smith, AI, 4/8/99.

  “You have independent films”: Payne, AI, 2/21/00.

  “a zoo, a circus”: Ray, AI, 12/16/98.

  “In the beginning”: Lichter, AI, 10/2/98.

  “What a great idea that was” and following: Avary, AI, 5/2/02.

  “We could have made” and following: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.

  “too demented”: Rick Hess, AI, 10/23/98.

  “The worst-case scenario”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.

  “Please, just read it” and following: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.

  “As opposed to many other”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.

  “Everyone had said”: Hess, AI, 10/23/98.

  “Harvey’s always wanted”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.

  “Harvey’s power base”: Marcy Granata, AI, 12/16/02.

 

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