Rebels on the Backlot
Page 41
196 “It was a completely crazy thing to be doing on a Thursday night …”: Sellar, author interview.
197 “New Line wanted to keep Paul in the fold”: Sellar, author interview.
197 “It was a big day for my little Paul”: Bumble Ward, author interview.
197 In the end the film cost $42 million: Sellar and Tichenor, author interview.
197 “I just went through the experience where the life-or-death thing …”: Interview in That Moment, making-of documentary on Magnolia DVD.
198 “A friend of mine was teaching a class on audio-recording …”: David Konow, “PTA Meeting.”
198 “I would just have to calm him down …”: Ibid.
198 “I want to intimidate her …”: Tichenor, author interview.
199 “David, I’m going to tell you something …”: Fincher, author interview.
200 “Arnon, I completely understand what you’re saying …”: Fincher, author interview.
200 “That $5 million is not going to come from Eastman Kodak …”: Fincher, author interview.
201 “This is crazy”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.
201 “I said if I couldn’t make the movie, I wouldn’t stay in the job …”: Mechanic, author interview.
202 “Dude—I have no sympathy for you …”: Fincher, author interview.
Chapter Eight
204 “You’ve gotta see what I’m up against …”: Lance Acord, author interview.
204 “There was a point early on where I worried for my job”: Acord, author interview.
204 “I thought Cameron Diaz was in this scene …”: Acord, author interview.
204 “I’m in this crazy movie, Being John Malkovich …”: Michael Kuhn, author interview.
205 “Nobody paid any attention, and we finished the movie”: Steve Golin, author interview.
205 “Hi, my name is Kevin Misher …”: Vince Landay, author interview.
206 “I think we all felt busted …”: Spike Jonze, author interview.
207 “He’s a screamer”: Golin, author interview.
207 “I think it’s about the need to escape yourself for fifteen minutes …”: Peter Kobel, “The Fun and Games of Living a Virtual Life,” New York Times, October 24, 1999.
207 “You open the door and where are you?”: K. K. Barrett, author interview.
208 “It may seem absurd to listen to that conversation …”: Barrett, author interview.
208 “If Terry Gilliam had made this, he’d have gone the opposite way …”: Acord, author interview.
209 “We’ve got enough frames just to do this quick shot”: Landay, author interview.
210 “When we shot it on Cameron’s close-up, we just let the camera roll …”: Jonze, author interview.
210 Finally Huber became available: Landay, author interview.
210 “it was just this miserable thing to watch”: Jonze, author interview.
211 “You feel like you’re on the brink of failure all the time …”: Jonze, author interview.
212 “If you make money on the movies, you keep your job”: Confidential source, author interview.
213 “It’s a mind-altering script, I thought it was unique …”: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, author interview.
214 “Desperation is not the word …”: di Bonaventura, author interview.
215 “This is one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen”: di Bonaventura, author interview.
217 The story “seemed like something I could go nuts with …”: David O. Russell, author interview.
217 Gerber replied, “We’re not afraid of this type ofthing”: Russell, author interview.
219 “It was fairly singular”: di Bonaventura, author interview.
219 the studio was pushing Russell: George Clooney, author interview.
219 “He never said anything to me about that at the time”: Russell, author interview.
220 “Although superficially our relationship was not complicated …”: Steven Soderbergh, Getting Away With It (London: Faber and Faber, 2000), 215.
221 an article he’d read in the Utne Reader Edward Zwick, author interview.
221 “I am the perfect person to write this …”: Laura Bickford, author interview.
222 “I’d have been an idiot not to make that deal …”: Bickford, author interview.
222 “I was giving up creative vision of that movie to Steven Soderbergh …”: Zwick, author interview.
224 “I had a totally different idea about the law enforcement side …”: Geoff Pevere, “Traffic: The Movie That Holly-Wouldn’t.” Toronto Star, December 29, 2000.
224 “The whole movie should feel as though we showed up …”: David Konow, “PTA Meeting.” Creative Screenwriting, no. 1 (January 2000).
225 It ripped the skin off his palms: Edward Norton, author interview.
225 Do the breasts have to have nipples?: Norton, author interview.
225 Norton and Pitt … getting the same injuries: Norton, author interview.
226 “There was something in it that kicked my head back …”: Michael Cieply, author interview.
226 “At the time there was a kind of hipness around the whole enterprise …”: Cieply, author interview.
Chapter Nina
228 “No, you’ve got to do it the Jewish way …”: David O. Russell, author interview.
228 Clooney letter to Russell: Courtesy George Clooney.
229 Russell answered the door with his video camera: Chris Nashawaty, “Three the Hard Way,” Entertainment Weekly, October 8, 1999.
229 “Isn’t he that guy who’s always squinting …”: Russell, author interview; Janet Grillo, author interview.
229 He would consider Clooney for the role: Russell and George Clooney, author interview.
229 “I want you to be very still in this role”: Clooney, author interview.
230 October letter from Clooney to Russell: Courtesy George Clooney.
230 “I keep sort of stealing things …”: Russell, author interview.
231 Hackman and Anderson clash on set of The Royal Tenenbaums: Confidential source, author interview.
232 “Difficult as he might have been, they got through it …”: Fred Specter, author interview.
232 “You people are all weird”: Greg Goodman, author interview.
232 “They were afraid of investing $40 million …”: Goodman, author interview.
233 “No one gave me a manual …”: Goodman, author interview.
233 “something wasn’t right …”: Claudia Puig, “Hollywood’s Brave New War,” USA Today, October 1, 1999.
233 “Every step of the way …”: Bruce Newman, “Cutting the Apron Strings, a Director Turns to War,” New York Times, September 12, 1999.
234 “If you make this movie it will be a nightmare …”: Clooney and confidential source, author interview.
234 “If you want to pull the plug on this movie, go ahead …”: Russell, Clooney, author interviews.
234 Clooney letter to Terry Semel: Courtesy George Clooney.
235 “If I can’t make movies like this, I don’t want this job”: Russell, author interview.
235 He never shook Jim Miller’s hand again: Russell, author interview.
235 “There was a distinct turn …”: Russell, author interview.
236 “I once finished at 4:30 in the morning …”: Iain Blair, “To ER Is Human; Clooney Has No Regrets About Hard Work of Three Kings,” Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1999.
236 “None of it was fun”: Goodman, author interview.
237 “David is a painter, not a technician …”: Goodman, author interview.
237 “You don’t talk to the actors …”: Goodman, Clooney, author interviews.
237 The crew was also impatient: Grillo, author interview.
238 “David’s always in the moment…”: Chris Nashawaty: “Three the Hard Way.”
238 Russell would be hysterical: Clooney, author interview.
238 “This is insane.
What movie are we making?”: Goodman, author interview.
238 “Why can’t I just be loyal to my friend?”: Goodman, author interview.
238 “Clooney to the rescue …”: Jack Carter, “Clooney to the Rescue in Real-Life ER Drama,” Globe, December 22, 1998.
238 “You can’t do that …”: Clooney, author interview.
238 “It’s five hundred yards from where I was …”: Russell, author interview.
239 “David started reaming this guy …”: Clooney, author interview.
239 “The crane broke, we were losing the day …”: Russell, author interview.
239 Clooney took the antenna on his Humvee: Gregg Goldstein, “King’s Ransom: David O. Russell and a Combustible Cast Flirt with Disaster to Make Three Kings, one of the Smartest Action Movies in Years,” Premiere, November 1999.
240 Clooney slowed down principal photography: Confidential source, author interview.
240 “… George didn’t come prepared to do improv every day.”: Goodman, author interview.
240 For the rest of the takes, Clooney ad-libbed: Confidential source, author interview.
240 “I had long, long monologues written …”: “Gregg Goldstein, “King’s Ransom,” Premiere, November 1999.
240 “We would complain about doing a scene thirteen or fourteen times …”: Rolling Stone,
240 “He’ll throw everything out…”: Jonze, author interview.
241 “That’s too ‘little-movie,’ Greg”: Goodman, author interview.
241 Russell wanted to use a corpse, and did: Russell, author interview.
242 The reference remained: Russell, author interview.
242 Clooney letter to David Russell: Courtesy George Clooney.
243 “I’m convinced that had George given it up …”: Goodman, author interview.
243 “An extra was supposed to attack Cube …”: Gregg Goldstein, “King’s Ransom.”
243 Either way, Clooney had had enough: Clooney, Russell, Goodman, author interviews; related articles.
244 “I thought things were better after that.” Russell, author interview.
244 “George and I are friends now”: Goldstein, “King’s Ransom.”
244 “It’s a movie and part of the process is that there’re gonna be misunderstandings …”: Goldstein, “King’s Ransom.”
244 “He’s a weirdo, and he’s hard to talk to …”: Nashawaty, “Three the Hard Way.”
245 “I would not stand for him humiliating and yelling …”: Ned Zeman, “The Admirable Clooney,” Vanity Fair, October 2003.
245 “George Clooney can suck my dick”: Russell, in Zeman, “The Admirable Clooney.”
245 “It doesn’t reflect well on him …”: Goodman, author interview.
245 “Ultimately he’s a good director …”: Clooney, author interview.
246 “Never saw any of the script changes”: Benjamin Svetkey, “Easy Writer; He Wrote the Original Three Kings Screenplay, So Why Didn’t John Ridley Get the Credit?,” Entertainment Weekly, October 8, 1999.
246 “because he’s embarrassed by how little of his screenplay ended up in my movie”: Ibid.
246 “If it’s David Russell …”: Clooney, author interview.
246 “Russell may have rewritten it word for word …”: Svetkey, “Easy Writer.”
247 The publicist insists that she let Russell go: Bumble Ward, author interview.
247 She considered him an oddity: Confidential source, author interview.
247 Soderbergh made snide remarks: Confidential source, author interview.
248 “David spent every weekend at my house …”: Nancy Tenenbaum, author interview.
248 “We were both kids”: Tenenbaum, author interview.
248 “He’s very scary, very smart…”: Tenenbaum, author interview.
248 “Steven characterized our relationship …”: Tenenbaum, author interview.
248 “I don’t think he has a soul …”: Confidential source, author interview.
Chapter Ten
252 “the third major Hollywood film of the year …”: Andrew O’Hehir, “The Fight for Dumb Irony,” Salon.com, October 16, 1999.
252 “I was blown away by Election …”: Paul Thomas Anderson, author interview.
252 “The first time I’ve felt any millennium thing …”: Lynn Hirschberg, “His Way,” New York Times, December 19, 1999.
252 “This is the first film of the twenty-first century”: Dylan Tichenor, author interview.
252 “We keep meeting the enemy …”: Richard Schickel, “Unconventional Warfare,” Time, October 4, 1999.
252 “I want to be the next Harrison Ford …”: Brian Swardstrom, author interview.
254 “I could tell they were jolted”: Art Linson, What Just Happened (London: Bloomsbury, 2002), 145.
254 “I glanced over at Fincher …”: Ibid., 147.
254 “I don’t want to talk about it”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.
254 “Who is this movie for?”: Tom Sherak, author interview.
255 “Next week, I have a psychiatrist …”: Linson, What Just Happened, 152.
255 “It’s too violent …”: Mechanic, author interview.
255 “Could we sell it?: Laura Ziskin, author interview.
255 “I loved the movie …”: Linson, What Just Happened, 153.
255 “It’s very difficult for me to find movies that are less violent than Fight Club …”: David Fincher, author interview.
255 “I just saw the movie …”: Edward Norton, author interview.
256 Movies about drugs were difficult by nature: Laura Bickford, author interview.
256 “We had other issues …”: Mechanic, author interview.
257 “Tell me your terms to give us the movie back …”: Bickford, author interview.
258 He said it was consistent “with AA principles”: Pat Dollard, author interview.
258 “I want you to say to me right now …”: Dollard, author interview.
258 Fox to give them a list of actors: Bickford, Dollard, Mechanic, author interviews.
261 A study found what everyone already knew: Sharon Waxman, “Rating Enforcement Changes Hollywood’s Picture,” Washington Post, May 31, 2001.
262 “There were people who abhorred it …”: Mechanic, author interview.
262 “I just didn’t think it was violent enough …”: Andrew Pulver, “Fight the Good Fight,” Guardian, October 29, 1999.
262 “Can anyone tell me one fucking thing …”: Norton, author interview.
263 “At first glance you’re struck by his calmness …”: Linson, What Just Happened, 77.
263 “If a movie worked it was a goddam great campaign …”: Ibid.
263 “Doberman Fincher”: Confidential source, author interview.
264 “I’ve been through the Robert Harper experience …”: Fincher, author interview.
264 “The very qualities that made Fight Club …”: Robert Harper, statement to author.
264 “You can blame anybody you’d like …”: Sherak, author interview.
265 “The core audience from the book was paper thin …”: Confidential source, author interview.
265 “We could have platformed it…”: Confidential source, author interview.
266 “were in awe of the property”: Confidential source, author interview.
266 The image “was an interesting icon …”: Confidential source, author interview.
266 “That poster lost any chance to get an upscale, intelligent audience”: Confidential source, author interview.
266 “like in a mental institution”: Confidential source, author interview.
267 a “repressed sadomasochist with torture fantasies”: Confidential source, author interview.
267 “The problem for me with Twentieth Century Fox …”: Fincher, author interview.
268 “You approved the script …”: Fincher, author interview.
269 “We made a deal”: Fincher, author interview.
271 Sherak and rating: Fincher, author interview. Author’s note: The $60,000 sum referred to by Fincher included the purchase price for the book plus overhead costs.
272 They got…the subversive humor in the film: Sherak, author interview.
272 “‘I’ve got to protect people from this’”: Fincher, author interview.
273 “There was one audience for this movie—men …”: Sherak, author interview.
Chapter Eleven
275 “It was the single most important tool …”: Sandy Stern, author interview.
275 “They’d made connections you’d never imagine …”: Vince Landay, author interview.
275 “Nobody really cared about the movie”: Steve Golin, author interview.
275 “there was total ambivalence”: Golin, author interview.
275 “You have your movie, and I have mine”: Sofia Coppola, author interview.
277 “Every time my dad talks about the movies …”: Coppola, author interview.
277 “The film is an outrageous piece of whimsical fantasy …”: Kenneth Turan, “Being John Malkovich: Gently Unhinged,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1999.
278 “We hoped it wasn’t something that would get lost …”: Landay, author interview.
278 “The Oscar nominating committees …”: Jan Stuart, “A Search for Meaning,” Newsday, October 24, 1999.
278 “the last great movie of the century …”: Tom Carson, Esquire, October 1999.
279 “That’s a class in marketing …”: Russell Schwartz, author interview.
279 Hertz came to take away the keys: David O. Russell, author interview.
279 Zumbrunnen overhead Jonze tell an interviewer: Eric Zumbrunnen, author interview.
279 “My old friend Ray served in Panama …”: Christopher Goodwin, “The Devil in Mr. Jonze,” Sunday Times, March 26, 2000.
280 “heir to the $3-billion-a-year Spiegel catalogue fortune …”: Ethan Smith, “Spike Jonze Unmasked,” New York, October 25, 1999.
280 children of the super-rich: Dwight Garner, “Television: The Season of the Heirheads,” New York Times, November 16, 2003.
280 “Jonze has always been blessed …”: Mark Healy, “Being Spike Jonze, Interview,” Harper’s Bazaar, November 1, 1999.