Rebels on the Backlot

by Sharon Waxman

  Ferrell/Lipton: Nineteen ninety-nine. God wakes up, and poops out Three Kings. David, why the desert?

  Russell: I think young men are very handsome in the desert light.

  Ferrell/Lipton: Cheaper in the desert?

  Russell (prickly): What cheaper? And I don’t think I pooped out a movie.

  Ferrell/Lipton: I said God pooped it out.

  Russell (provocative): Does that mean I’m God?

  Ferrell/Lipton: You are a de-light.

  The following year it was Alexander Payne’s turn, and there was no such levity. Payne was questioned onstage by the equally inexperienced Bingham Ray, a veteran independent studio executive. At least a raucous party followed at a restaurant on Twenty-third Street, where Russell prompty lit a joint and confessed that he had concocted a plan with Payne to start a tradition for the MoMA works-in-progress event. He’d planned to streak across the stage naked in the middle of the interview. Payne had even given him the signal to go at the beginning of the event. Sadly, Russell backed out, not finding any space backstage to take off his clothes.

  BY THE START OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM, THE REBELS OF THE 1990s were well into their careers, established and recognized yet still eager to show that their first big successes were no coincidence, that they had staying power as artists working in the studio system.

  But in truth the system had already begun to beat them down and to dilute their voices. It would continue to do so in subsequent years. Studio executives claimed to be enthusiastic supporters of the work of the rebels, but those who maintained the sharpest edges in their work found it hard to find a home. Kimberly Peirce went from one project to another, not finding the support she had earned the right to expect with the success of Boys Don’t Cry. She turned down a host of offers as director-for-hire on studio movies. Darren Aronofsky, who’d made Pi, sent out a daring script about a harrowing descent into drug addiction. He was turned down everywhere, though eventually Requiem for a Dream was made and released at the independent studio Lions Gate (though not without a major fight over an NC-17 rating). It produced an Oscar nomination for Ellen Burstyn. “After Pi every person in the artsier arena said, ‘Send us your script, and we’ll make it,’” said Aronofsky. “We sent everyone Requiem for a Dream, and people didn’t call us back.”

  But the rebels, in the main, kept working. By 2002 another whole crop of pictures were ready for release, and in a sense the year was an echo of the virtuoso explosion of 1999. Except this time the residue of overnight success, the hangover of newfound media celebrity, was noticeable in the work. Many of these films were less daring than the previous ones, and in many of them it felt like the studio’s siren song had crept into the consciousness of the young directors. Already in 2001 Wes Anderson had released The Royal Tenenbaums, a clever, inventive romp with a stellar ensemble cast including Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson; but it was clearly not yet the masterpiece that critics were expecting from the director who had written and directed Rushmore. Paul Thomas Anderson made Punch-Drunk Love, with Adam Sandler, and raged around the set like the diva he was, shooting for months and months without much of a script. The movie was weighed down by his overindulgent working style (his longtime collaborator Dylan Tichenor quit halfway through in frustration) and an overgenerous studio. The movie did only moderate business and got no major awards. With Soderbergh’s Full Frontal, the director required the actors (including Julia Roberts) to drive themselves to the set and do their own hair and makeup, but the film was in theaters for just a couple of weeks. The glacially paced and icily shot Solaris was a remake of an Andre Tarkovsky film that made all but the most dedicated art-house movie-lovers fall asleep. (Fox couldn’t win on this one: a few weeks before being handed his walking papers, studio chief Bill Mechanic got a call from Soderbergh with what was supposed to be good news: “Here’s payback for Traffic,” said the director. “I’m going to make my next movie with you.” Fox spent close to $70 million making and releasing the film, though no amount of full-page ads in the New York Times could convince audiences the movie was good, and it took in just $15 million at the box office. “I don’t know that it was payback,” Mechanic later said, ruefully.) Soderbergh also finally remarried in 2003, to entertainment news personality Jules Asner. Sam Mendes seemed equally bound by the weight of his previous success. The ponderous Road to Perdition was painfully self-aware (though beautiful to look at) where American Beauty had been thoughtful and complex; the film, starring Tom Hanks and Jude Law, was a disappointment with critics and the box office. The two Matrix series that followed the first revolutionary film were pale shadows of the Wachowskis’ earlier brilliance. Fincher’s Panic Room, starring Jodie Foster, was a box office hit, but seemed much more like a mainstream Hollywood movie than Fight Club, almost as if he’d had the subversive beat out of him. He spent the next several years coming close to doing major Hollywood projects, but always seemed to find a reason to walk away. On the war-era Fertig, he insisted on shooting in black-and-white; the studio passed. On The Lookout, he asked for a $100 million budget for a relatively small film. On Dogtown and Z-Boys, he demanded the right to build a multimillion-dollar set of a skate park for a short sequence, was refused, and walked away. Fincher seemed to find a way to talk himself out of every movie offered him.

  Not all the rebel voices had been diluted or diverted. Luckily, Alexander Payne delivered a brilliantly understated comedy in About Schmidt for New Line, for which Jack Nicholson won a Best Actor nomination. And Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufmann came through with Adaptation at Sony, a story about turning a book into a movie—and the screenwriter purging his angst through the looking-glass. Jonze seemed to be the director best suited for translating this vision; Nicolas Cage, playing both Charlie Kaufman and his (fictitious) brother Donald, won a Best Actor nomination, Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Chris Cooper won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

  Then in 2003 Quentin Tarantino finally came out of hiding or depression or stoner paralysis or wherever he had gone for six years and rewarded his fans with Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2 in 2004, homage and amalgam of all the Asian fight movies he’d ever seen, with plenty of other pulp fiction thrown in for good measure. David O. Russell sequestered himself and wrote for several years, but found himself blocked in working on a script about a New York romance at a Manhattan ashram. He jettisoned that script after September 11 to work on I Heart Huckabees, an intensely personal and very uncommercial movie tied to Zen Buddhist theories of love and human connection.

  THE 1990S CAME TO BE DEFINED IN OPPOSITION TO THE events of the new millennium that only truly began on September 11, 2001; the world changed after that moment, and the themes of the 1990s, the themes of the great movies of the 1990s, had to be viewed through that very different lens. Suddenly the ending of Fight Club, with New York skyscrapers detonating at the hands of nihilist terrorists, seemed to limn the terror of the attacks on the Twin Towers. The theme of the film was about the failures of consumer society, but everyone connected to the film saw the rise of Al Qaeda terrorism become a different way to interpret Project Mayhem. “Fight Club is very much about the psychological fallout of feeling empty within a modern material system. It is, in that sense, a very American film,” said Ed Norton. “Obviously the message penetrated in more places than America. In some sense what happened on September 11 does reflect that nihilistic reponse. It is nihilism at its ultimate.”

  One could hardly have imagined that Three Kings would become even more relevant four years after its release than it was in 1999, but as the United States went to war against Saddam Hussein in March 2003, many went back to reexamine the themes of Three Kings. And as the war descended into a chaotic postwar reality, Russell’s depiction continued to resonate, from its themes of American betrayal of Iraqi Shi’ites trying to overthrow Saddam to its depiction of Arabs and of America’s place in the Middle East. In the summer of 2004 Russell made a documentary about Iraqi refugees and ret
urning American veterans, a statement against war.

  Most of all, though, the rebels had definitively sounded a voice for their generation, one that was adopted and imitated throughout society, reflected in television shows that were blatant rip-offs of Traffic and advertising that adopted the hipper-than-thou absurdist tone of Spike Jonze. The violence of Tarantino and Fincher continued to filter its way into all movies, up to and including movies about the Crucifixion (more than one critic called The Passion of the Christ an heir to Pulp Fiction). By the start of the new millennium, these filmmakers truly knew that they had come to represent their craft and their time.

  “I didn’t watch Boogie Nights or Spanking the Monkey and see cause-effect,” said Tarantino, “but the thing is, I do feel part of an exciting community. Which has always been my dream—it’s always been my dream to be part of a community of artists. A community of filmmakers and directors and actors. Every generation needs its young exciting auteurs.” Paul Thomas Anderson, Tarantino noted, was channeling Robert Altman. David O. Russell took on his version of Kelly’s Heroes. Roger Avary considered Paul Thomas Anderson to be stealing from Martin Scorsese. Wes Anderson channeled Hal Ashby.

  “This is a story that goes back all the way to the beginning of cinema in this country, with the struggle for auteur filmmaking within the American cine-culture,” said Soderbergh. “That’s always been the battle. Between the belief that a director should be in creative control of a movie, as opposed to the person financing the film…. I’m in it for the long haul, this is the point. I mean, that’s the great thing about directing movies—you can do it until you drop.”

  NOTES

  Introduction

  xiii “… sitting there in a daze”: Quentin Tarantino, author interview.

  xiii “…bullet in my brain”: Tarantino, author interview.

  xiv “…not to pollute my movie”: Lisa Y. Garibay, “Anderson’s Valley,” IFP West Calendar December/1999.

  xiv “…American New Wave”: Steven Soderbergh, author interview.

  xvi “it’s no Air Force One”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.

  xvi “we have no interest in repeating”: Confidential source, author interview.

  xix “…didn’t play well with others”: Confidential source, author interview.

  xxi “you’re the ornithologist.”: Steven Soderbergh, author interview.

  Chapter One

  1 kill himself in 1997: Scott Spiegel, author interview.

  4 “half Cherokee, half hillbilly”: Peter Biskind, “An Auteur is Born,” Premiere, November 1994.

  4 “…beyond that one sentence”: Connie Zastoupil, author inverview.

  5 “…from the time he was three”: Zastoupil, author interview.

  6 School … was a place of discomfort: Zastoupil, author interview.

  6 “…He’d be off the streets”: Zastoupil, author interview.

  7 “…living in a dream world”: Zastoupil, author interview.

  7 precocious film talent: Zastoupil, author interview.

  8 Torrance Community Theater: Zastoupil, author interview.

  8 sixteen-page letter: Confidential source, author interview.

  9 Ph.D. in film studies: Jami Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 29.

  9 heading to Hollywood to find his fortune: Craig Hamann, author interview.

  10 They were casting agents: Hamann, author interview.

  10 friendship was “like smack”: Hamann, author interview.

  11 “if I hit it big, I will help you guys”: Hamman, Cathryn Jaymes, author interviews.

  11 threatened to sue Hamann: Hamann, author interview.

  11 Swintec electric typewriter: Hamann, author interview.

  12 ruined all the meat: Zastoupil, author interview.

  12 twenty minutes survives: Hamann, author interview.

  13 “I still see all his movies”: Hamann, author interview.

  13 did not attend the funeral: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino, 42.

  13 Tarantino didn’t return his calls: Ibid., 46.

  14 “having killed your baby”: Ibid., 96.

  14 “love and respect for the man”: Ibid., 90—91.

  14 “stagnant pond”: Ibid., 92.

  15 “continue to support it”: Jaymes, author interview.

  16 broken up twice during their courtship: Betsy Brantley, author interview.

  17 build an acting career: Brantley, author interview.

  17 twin sister: David Jensen, author interview.

  17 opera singer: Brantley, author interview.

  17 “I was hiding what I was really thinking”: Soderbergh, author interview.

  17 “I did not communicate with my wife”: Soderbergh, author interview.

  17 “And I didn’t know why”: Soderbergh, author interview.

  18 “we can live anywhere”: Brantley, author interview.

  18 “doing something else”: Jensen, author interview.

  19 Redford avoided her after that: Brantley, author interview.

  19 “I just lied my ass off”: Anthony Kaufman, ed., Steven Soderbergh Interviews. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002), 29.

  19 “The author’s ‘relationships’ follow this pattern …”: Steven Soderbergh, Getting Away With It (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), 75.

  20 “that had nothing to do with my motivation”: Brantley, author interview.

  20 “But it gave me closure”: Brantley, author interview.

  20 Tarantino so annoyed the producers: John Langley interview with Luke Ford, www.lukeford.net/profiles/john_langley.htm

  21 “Invest in Motion Pictures”: Roger Avary, author interview.

  21 “It was really strange”: Spiegel, author interview.

  21 Avary’s eighty-page script: Avary, author interview.

  21 “five hundred pages held together by a rubber band”: Tarantino, author interview.

  21 “coming from the same place”: Tarantino, author interview.

  21 Ending of True Romance: Pete McAlevey, author interview.

  22 “He doesn’t mimic people”: Jaymes, author interview.

  22 “He was this compelling oddball”: Jaymes, author interview.

  23 “fair and honest”: Jaymes, author interview.

  24 “This is my favorite shirt”: Jaymes, author interview.

  24 story about car: Confidential source, author interview.

  24 “alter the face of cinema”: Jaymes, author interview.

  25 good reason to use foul language: Jaymes, author interview.

  25 “he just didn’t take chances”: Jaymes, author interview.

  25 “And you better say yes”: Jaymes, author interview.

  25 “have a fucking great day”: Jaymes, author interview.

  25 living next to undergraduates: Avary, author interview.

  25 Dusk Till Dawn: Spiegel, author interview.

  26 Bender appeared reticent: Videotape of Memorial Day 1990 picnic, courtesy Scott Spiegel.

  27 “in the presence of a jackal”: Jane Hamsher, Killer Instinct (New York: Broadway Books, 1997), 58.

  27 “… a barnacle attached to Quentin”: Hamsher, Killer Instinct, 68.

  27 Bender removed from Good Will Hunting and Anna and the King: Confidential sources, author interviews.

  27 “holes in your pants”: Lee Daniels, author interview.

  28 equal to Tarantino’s: McAlevey, author interview.

  28 “I didn’t realize it was dialogue”: Zastoupil, author interview.

  28 Reservoir Dogs title: Bernard, McAlevey, Avary, author interviews.

  29 the coverage was always terrible: John Lesher, author interview.

  29 “I’m old-fashioned that way”: Jaymes, author interview.

  30 endlessly pitching Tarantino: Joan Hyler, author interview.

  30 an elaborate hoax: Lawrence Bender, author interview.

  30 “felt it deep in my gut”: Bender, author interview.

  30
Christopher Walken: Jaymes, author interview.

  31 worth $4 million at the time: Richard Gladstein, author interview.

  31 $5,000 thank-you check: McAlevey, author interview.

  31 Roth got the part: Bender, author interview.

  31 “Maybe I was embarrassing to him”: Hamann, author interview.

  32 bloggers sent him hate mail: Hamann, author interview.

  32 Filmmaker’s Lab: Michelle Satter, author interview.

  32 a third of the movie bled: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino, 158.

  33 Hoving had recommended True Romance: Harvey Weinstein, author interview.

  36 … to coproduce some films and acquire others: Weinstein, author interview.

  37 worst bosses in the country: Weinstein, author interview.

  38 “to distribute the movie”: Nancy Tenenbaum, author interview.

  38 escrow account for sex, lies, and videotape: Tenenbaum, Weinstein, author interviews.

  39 video rights to Paramount: Weinstein, author interview.

  39 “the competition was spreading it around more”: Weinstein, author interview.

  39 “… three to six months away from chaos” Peter Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 103.

  40 “limping along”: Ibid., 110.

  40 unable to conform to corporate culture: Ibid., 115–116

  40 They felt guilty: Bender, author interview.

  40 “I’ll only date a guy who looks like an IV user”: McAlevey, author interview.

  40 neglected to put on a bowtie: McAlevey, author interview.

  41 to get her fired: Stacey Sher, author interview.

  41 being snubbed by the Sundance jury: Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures, 120–122.

  41 “hugest ego on the planet”: Bumble Ward, author interview.