The Big Picture Update: Fade In Magazine piece
I picked up a copy of Fade In today and on the cover was Will Farrell and among the cover teasers, "Dumped: When Your Film is In the Can and Stays There".
As I thumbed through the magazine I started to get nervous about what I'd said to reporter, Steven Galloway. I've been a journalist for different news organizations and understand the subtleties of how we craft stories to keep on point. Like a novel or a screenplay these pieces, however small, need a compelling opening, a meaty and interesting body, and a great sum-up ending. Not an easy thing to do when you are dealing with a lot of unpredictable factors, including wiggly facts, dead-end leads, or taciturn interviewees who answer in monosyllables. It's a relief when you get good quotes and it makes the story a lot easier to deliver, especially as the deadline is always looming in the picture. And while journalists may not have an agenda, they have to come up with a clear and compelling story, even if they are covering the daily business of small-town city hall (which can be deadly boring to sit through). So you never know what they're going to do with you.
He used a lot of our conversation throughout the piece and the information was accurate as far as I know. Since some of the information I gave him was second-hand (which I prefaced as such) I was only concerned that those people mentioned (and their actions) would not offend.
Although he talked about several films in this piece, Galloway said in the opening paragraph that The Big Picture had been one of the best films at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival and had launched Chris' Guest's career, despite tanking at the box office. I'm glad people now know what happened and why it never grossed more than the meager $30,000 listed in the Internet Movie Database.
I mentioned in my series that some of the people have died since the film was made. Dawn Steel died in 1997 at the age of 51 of a brain tumor and left a husband and small child behind. The actor who played Alan Habel, the studio chief we modeled after Robert Shapiro (once head of Warner Brothers and our one-time boss), J.T. Walsh, died of a heart attack in 1998 shortly after making Pleasantville. He was a lovely man and a great character actor who had a prolific career. In his interview for The Big Picture documentary, he told me that he would try out for anything, even a woman's part, to keep working. "I'd just play it a little light in the loafers," he deadpanned.
Some other trivia:
In the no-names-please department, the first actress in the part that eventually went to Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) was released after we shot a couple of scenes with her and Kevin Bacon. The official reason was that she seemed intimidated by Kevin instead of the conniving, manipulative bitch she was meant to be. But it might also have had something to do with the fact that she showed up for her audition, shall we say, considerably more endowed than she actually was and there were concerns that in some of the lingerie shots, she wouldn't be able to deliver......
Also, Jason Gould, who plays one of the film students who becomes an agent later in the film is the son of Barbara Streisand and Elliot Gould, who appears in his student film (along with Roddy McDowell).
And finally, Emily Longstreth disappeared from view after her terrific performance in The Big Picture. One wonders.
Of course if you look at my profile in IMDB it looks like I disappeared too......and I'm still here.
Hmmmmm.
As I thumbed through the magazine I started to get nervous about what I'd said to reporter, Steven Galloway. I've been a journalist for different news organizations and understand the subtleties of how we craft stories to keep on point. Like a novel or a screenplay these pieces, however small, need a compelling opening, a meaty and interesting body, and a great sum-up ending. Not an easy thing to do when you are dealing with a lot of unpredictable factors, including wiggly facts, dead-end leads, or taciturn interviewees who answer in monosyllables. It's a relief when you get good quotes and it makes the story a lot easier to deliver, especially as the deadline is always looming in the picture. And while journalists may not have an agenda, they have to come up with a clear and compelling story, even if they are covering the daily business of small-town city hall (which can be deadly boring to sit through). So you never know what they're going to do with you.
He used a lot of our conversation throughout the piece and the information was accurate as far as I know. Since some of the information I gave him was second-hand (which I prefaced as such) I was only concerned that those people mentioned (and their actions) would not offend.
Although he talked about several films in this piece, Galloway said in the opening paragraph that The Big Picture had been one of the best films at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival and had launched Chris' Guest's career, despite tanking at the box office. I'm glad people now know what happened and why it never grossed more than the meager $30,000 listed in the Internet Movie Database.
I mentioned in my series that some of the people have died since the film was made. Dawn Steel died in 1997 at the age of 51 of a brain tumor and left a husband and small child behind. The actor who played Alan Habel, the studio chief we modeled after Robert Shapiro (once head of Warner Brothers and our one-time boss), J.T. Walsh, died of a heart attack in 1998 shortly after making Pleasantville. He was a lovely man and a great character actor who had a prolific career. In his interview for The Big Picture documentary, he told me that he would try out for anything, even a woman's part, to keep working. "I'd just play it a little light in the loafers," he deadpanned.
Some other trivia:
In the no-names-please department, the first actress in the part that eventually went to Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) was released after we shot a couple of scenes with her and Kevin Bacon. The official reason was that she seemed intimidated by Kevin instead of the conniving, manipulative bitch she was meant to be. But it might also have had something to do with the fact that she showed up for her audition, shall we say, considerably more endowed than she actually was and there were concerns that in some of the lingerie shots, she wouldn't be able to deliver......
Also, Jason Gould, who plays one of the film students who becomes an agent later in the film is the son of Barbara Streisand and Elliot Gould, who appears in his student film (along with Roddy McDowell).
And finally, Emily Longstreth disappeared from view after her terrific performance in The Big Picture. One wonders.
Of course if you look at my profile in IMDB it looks like I disappeared too......and I'm still here.
Hmmmmm.
posted by vallie at 3:33 PM
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