Rebels on the Backlot (55 page)

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.

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 Fincher would nod: 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.

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.

281 “I was wrong. I didn’t get it…”: Russell, author interview.

281 “a brilliant exercise in popular but palpable surrealism …”: Richard Schickel,
Time
, October 4, 1999.

281 “
Salvador
, with elements of
M*A*S*H
…”: Owen Gleiberman, “Spoils of War,”
Entertainment Weekly
, October 8, 1999.

282 “
Three Kings
is Hollywood with a twist…”: Kenneth Turan, “A Crowning Effort: David O. Russell has made
Three Kings
a Gripping (and Wickedly Witty) Movie That Is More Than Just a War Film,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 1, 1999.

282 “Too little, too late”: Janet Maslin, “Fighting the Battle of Money and Greed,”
New York Times
, October 1, 1999.

282 “Mark Wahlberg?”: David Fincher, author interview.

282 “uncomprehending concern and panic …”:
New York Times
, September 1999.

283 he called George Clooney: Harvey Weinstein, author interview.

283 “it was the best movie of the year”: Weinstein, author interview.

284 “It’s a revolution …”: Lynn Hirschberg, “His Way,”
New York Times
, December 19, 1999; Russell, author interview.

284 “New Line loves the movie …”: Ibid.

285 In a behind-the-scenes documentary:
That Moment
, by Mark Rance,
Magnolia
DVD.

285 “What did you think of the script?”: Ibid.

285 “I have two words for you: Final cut”: Robert Shaye, author interview.

286 “I hate that kind of arrogance …”: Shaye, author interview.

286 On a lark, he showed it to a general audience: Paul Thomas Anderson, author interview.

286 De Luca heaved a big sigh: Dylan Tichenor, author interview.

286 “It’s indulgent. Let’s leave it”: Hirschberg, “His Way.”

287 “Fuck you, buddy,” shouted De Luca: Tichenor, author interview.

287 “You have to sit in the movie and really absorb it…”: Hirschberg, “His Way.”

287 “I thought about what you said …”: Shaye, author interview.

287 “I’d take out eight”: Anderson, author interview.

287 “If I needed to take out ten more minutes …”: Anderson, author interview.

287 “I love
Magnolia
…”: Mike De Luca, author interview.

288 “didn’t get what Paul wanted, didn’t understand him.”: Joanne Sellar, author interview.

288 “He developed the film himself, too”:
That Moment, Magnolia
DVD.

289 “I know I’m a lucky guy”: Hirshberg, “His Way.”

289 “shrill”: Desson Howe, “Shrill
Magnolia,” Washington Post
, January 7, 2000.

289 “heady”: Rita Kempley, “Flower Power: Cruise & Company in a Heady
Magnolia,” Washington Post
, January 7, 2000.

289 “…a God-mad chunk of pure American magic …”: Stephen Hunter, “Miraculous
Magnolia;
That Swirl of Surreal Images? Take Them at Faith Value,”
Washington Post
, January 23, 2000.

289
“Magnolia
is drunk and disorderly …”: “Kenneth Turan,” Random Lives, Bound by Chance,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 17, 1999.

289 “as the desperate reach for some larger meaning …”: Janet Maslin, “Entangled Lives on the Cusp of the Millennium,”
New York Times
, December 17, 1999.

289 “emotional immaturity”: Henry Sheehan, “A False Feel to Magnolia,”
Orange County Register
, December 17, 1999.

291 “We didn’t like where we were going …”: John Horn, “Safer Movies, Less Moxie at New Line,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 9, 2002.

293 “cheerfully fascist …”: Roger Ebert,
“Fight
Stresses Frightful Ideas; Fascism Wins by Knockout,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, October 15, 1999.

294 “a witless mishmash …”: Kenneth Turan,
“Fight Club
, Alternating Between Sheer Tedium and Churning Violence, Has a Bigger Misguided Idea at Its Core,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 15, 1999.

294 “dumb and brutal shock show of a movie …”: Lisa Schwarzbaum, “Dead Battery,”
Entertainment Weekly
, October 22, 1999.

294 “a load of rancid depressing swill …” Rex Reed, “Membership Can Hurt Careers … Cross Country by Law Mower,”
New York Observer
, October 19, 1999.

294 “not only anti-capitalist, but anti-society and indeed, anti-God,”: Alexander Walker, “How could Brad and Helena do it?,”
Evening Standard
(London), September 10, 1999.

294 “How can a movie that is a proponent of no solution whatsoever be labeled …”: Andrew Pulver, “Fight the Good Fight,”
Guardian
, October 29, 1999.