Revisiting The Big Picture I
Today I got a call from a journalist with Fade In Magazine. He wanted to talk to me about The Big Picture , a film I made with a lot of other really talented people over a decade ago. The conversation brought back a lot of great memories because director Chris Guest actually thought I was funny (and believe me that's no easy feat). He said I was like Gracie to his George Burns. I'll take that as a compliment because he gave me a part in the film.
The Fade In journalist is doing a piece about movies that were quashed by their studios for various reasons. I have a spotty memory when it comes to a lot of things that happened 15 years ago but everything about this movie is still very, very clear. I've told one particular Dawn Steel story to a lot of people over the years because it's quintessential Hollywood fodder.
I cautioned the reporter that some of the information was hearsay but that to the best of my knowledge it was all true. Some of the people in this story are dead now, obviously way before their time. Names of the people in this article have NOT been changed. Since it's all personal recollection, my word is good.....
The idea for The Big Picture was based on all our freshmen experiences working in Hollywood, and was first optioned by Paramount Pictures as a treatment after the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure by writer/producer Michael Varhol (we were newly married and I was a tres young bride). The script was a collaborative effort between Michael and Chris Guest, who had met a year or so earlier through Bill McEuen, whose company, Aspen Pictures, had represented Paul Reubens and Steve Martin at one time. Chris, fresh off the success of This is Spinal Tap, had his own momentum so the project looked very promising.
But when the script was finished, Paramount (Dawn Steel was a VP there) passed on it and put it into turnaround. I remember being very surprised because I thought it was fresh, incisively funny, and an original, behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood that would appeal to a wide audience. Despite our disappointment, Michael was able to start shopping it around town, a process that took quite a while. I remember these as dark times. Even though Pee-wee had been a commercial and critical success we didn't make a lot of money from it personally and by then were living on my salary as a production exec at Warner Brothers. (We were developing Empire of the Sun, but that's another story...)
A few months later, after interest from George Harrison's company, Handmade Films, David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures took a look at the script and bought the distribution rights in a negative pick-up deal that allowed us to get financing from a bank. This is all important info because no sooner had the ink dried on the agreement then Puttnam was let go and Dawn Steele was brought in as President.
From what we were told by studio insiders there was much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair when she discovered she had what she considered to be a lemon in her upcoming production portfolio. But because the financing agreements had been signed she had no way to stop us since we had already the funds in our hot little hands. This was an independent film in every way except we'd pre-sold the distribution rights to a studio (nice ride, eh?). Looking back it was just kismet that things happened the way they did because The Big Picture was a ground-breaking film and was meant to be made.
By then we'd set up production offices in the near the Columbia Records building in Hollywood and were beginning to send the script around to agents. It didn't help matters to the new Columia grande-dame that the response around town to the script was overwhelmingly positive. People were getting excited about being part of this film and we had offers from all the young turks for casting plums. In the beginning we might have been a bit smug about the fact that Dawn Steel's ego had been irritated by this apparent lack of symmetry between her judgement (remember she passed on the script at Paramount) and the amazing buzz it was already generating around town.
Those of you in the film business may know that Dawn Steel died under tragic circumstances quite a few years ago. It's unfortunate because my memories of her are not very good ones and I feel compelled to temper this out of respect for her memory but it doesn't change the events as they unfolded in 1989. Nor does it change the fact that a couple of years later she made the cover of California magazine as winner of The Worst Boss award for the state, so we weren't the only ones, apparently who never saw her nice, warm, fuzzy side.
Tomorrow:
Dawn Steel summons the principals of the film to try to intimidate them into dropping the project.
The Fade In journalist is doing a piece about movies that were quashed by their studios for various reasons. I have a spotty memory when it comes to a lot of things that happened 15 years ago but everything about this movie is still very, very clear. I've told one particular Dawn Steel story to a lot of people over the years because it's quintessential Hollywood fodder.
I cautioned the reporter that some of the information was hearsay but that to the best of my knowledge it was all true. Some of the people in this story are dead now, obviously way before their time. Names of the people in this article have NOT been changed. Since it's all personal recollection, my word is good.....
The idea for The Big Picture was based on all our freshmen experiences working in Hollywood, and was first optioned by Paramount Pictures as a treatment after the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure by writer/producer Michael Varhol (we were newly married and I was a tres young bride). The script was a collaborative effort between Michael and Chris Guest, who had met a year or so earlier through Bill McEuen, whose company, Aspen Pictures, had represented Paul Reubens and Steve Martin at one time. Chris, fresh off the success of This is Spinal Tap, had his own momentum so the project looked very promising.
But when the script was finished, Paramount (Dawn Steel was a VP there) passed on it and put it into turnaround. I remember being very surprised because I thought it was fresh, incisively funny, and an original, behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood that would appeal to a wide audience. Despite our disappointment, Michael was able to start shopping it around town, a process that took quite a while. I remember these as dark times. Even though Pee-wee had been a commercial and critical success we didn't make a lot of money from it personally and by then were living on my salary as a production exec at Warner Brothers. (We were developing Empire of the Sun, but that's another story...)
A few months later, after interest from George Harrison's company, Handmade Films, David Puttnam at Columbia Pictures took a look at the script and bought the distribution rights in a negative pick-up deal that allowed us to get financing from a bank. This is all important info because no sooner had the ink dried on the agreement then Puttnam was let go and Dawn Steele was brought in as President.
From what we were told by studio insiders there was much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair when she discovered she had what she considered to be a lemon in her upcoming production portfolio. But because the financing agreements had been signed she had no way to stop us since we had already the funds in our hot little hands. This was an independent film in every way except we'd pre-sold the distribution rights to a studio (nice ride, eh?). Looking back it was just kismet that things happened the way they did because The Big Picture was a ground-breaking film and was meant to be made.
By then we'd set up production offices in the near the Columbia Records building in Hollywood and were beginning to send the script around to agents. It didn't help matters to the new Columia grande-dame that the response around town to the script was overwhelmingly positive. People were getting excited about being part of this film and we had offers from all the young turks for casting plums. In the beginning we might have been a bit smug about the fact that Dawn Steel's ego had been irritated by this apparent lack of symmetry between her judgement (remember she passed on the script at Paramount) and the amazing buzz it was already generating around town.
Those of you in the film business may know that Dawn Steel died under tragic circumstances quite a few years ago. It's unfortunate because my memories of her are not very good ones and I feel compelled to temper this out of respect for her memory but it doesn't change the events as they unfolded in 1989. Nor does it change the fact that a couple of years later she made the cover of California magazine as winner of The Worst Boss award for the state, so we weren't the only ones, apparently who never saw her nice, warm, fuzzy side.
Tomorrow:
Dawn Steel summons the principals of the film to try to intimidate them into dropping the project.
posted by vallie at 8:06 AM
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