Rebels on the Backlot (59 page)

Sydney, see Hard Eight

Sympathy for the Devil
, 44

Taghmaoui, Saïd, 242

Talented Mr. Ripley, The
, 179

Tall Guy, The
, 39–40

Tarantino, Quentin, xi, xii, xiii, xvii, xviii-xxi, 2–16, 20–33, 35, 40–42, 53–64, 68–82, 120, 130–34, 138, 140, 159, 172, 191, 218, 226, 297, 298, 338, 339

Tarantino, Tony, 4

Tarkovsky, Andre, 336

Tati, Jacques, 133

Taylor, Charles, 289

Taylor, Ella, 324

Teaching Mrs. Tingle
, 261

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
, 45

Tenenbaum, Nancy, 38, 248

Thatcher, Margaret, 136

Thelma and Louise
, 177

There’s Something About Mary
, 189, 262

Thewlis, David, 115

Thomson, David, 294–95

Three Kings
, x, xi, xviii, xix, 191, 211, 217–19, 227–49, 251, 252, 275, 281–83, 298, 315, 333, 338–39

Thurman, Uma, 14, 69–72, 74, 75, 131

Tichenor, Dylan, 116, 118, 171, 193–94, 252, 286, 336

Titanic
, xvi, 136, 165, 184, 302

Tolkin, Michael, 162

Tomei, Marisa, 107

Tomlin, Lily, 93, 216, 333

Top Gun
, 33, 77

Traffic
, xi, xviii, 101, 123–28, 130, 219–24, 256–59, 303–31, 337, 339

Traffik
, 124, 125, 127, 220, 221, 222

Trainspotting
, 140

Travolta, John, xviii, 14, 63–64, 68, 71–72, 74, 75, 228

True Romance
, 11, 12, 21, 23, 24–25, 28, 30, 33, 53

Truffaut, François, 36, 133

Truth or Dare
, 40

Turan, Kenneth, 172, 277, 282, 289, 294, 325

Turner, Ted, xv, 48

Tusk, Mark, 32

Twelve Monkeys
, 177

Twin Falls Idaho
, xi

Two Days in the Valley
, 81

Uhls, Jim, 140, 149, 175, 176, 269–71

Unbelievable Truth
, 39–40

Underneath, The
, 102–3, 126

Usual Suspects, The
, 87, 140

Van Sant, Gus, 29

Vargas, Jacob, 317

Verhoeven, Paul, 297

Virgin Suicides, The
, x, xix, 208, 251, 276–77

Vitale, Ruth, 46–47, 61

Vossler, Rand, 13–14, 82

Wachowski, Andy, xi, xix, 213–16, 251, 337

Wachowski, Larry, xi, xix, 213–16, 251, 337

Wahlberg, Mark, xiv, 165, 168, 172, 230, 231, 237, 243, 247, 282, 334

Waite, Robert, 100–101

Waits, Tom, 277

Walcott, Derek, 290

Walken, Christopher, 30

Walker, Alexander, 135, 294

Walker, Andrew Kevin, 180, 181

Wallace, Ronna, 33, 62, 64

Wallflowers, the, 147

Ward, Bumble, xiii, 41–42, 73, 197, 246–47, 325

Ward, Vincent, 147

Wasserman, Lew, 34

Waters, John, 45

Way of the Gun, The
, 81

We Can Do This
, 162

Weinraub, Bernard, 48

Weinstein, Bob, 36, 38, 39, 40, 47, 63, 64–65, 67, 68, 78

Weinstein, Eve, 42

Weinstein, Harvey, xvii, 32–33, 35–40, 42, 47, 52, 62–69, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78–81, 92–93, 105, 133, 216, 283, 306–7

Weinstein, Max, 36

Weinstein, Miriam, 36

Welcome Back Kotter
, 68

Wells, Frank, 66

What Just Happened
(Linson), 254

What Lies Beneath
, 312

Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?
, 28

Wiatt, Jim, 314

Wild at Heart
, xii, 163

Wilkins, Joseph, 97–98

Williams, Tennessee, 154

Willis, Bruce, 33, 68, 69, 74, 75, 114, 211

Wilmington, Michael, 324–25

Wilson, Owen, 120, 336

Wings of the Dove, The
, 181–82

Winslow, Karin, 215

Winwood, Steve, 147

Witherspoon, Reese, 182

Woo, John, 29

XXX
, 262–63

Yakin, Boaz, 1

Yes, 99

Yorn, Rick, 303

Z, 130

Zastoupil, Connie, 3–8, 11–12, 26, 70, 82

Zastoupil, Curt, 5–6, 70

Zeitz, Jim, 97

Zeitz, Randy, 97

Zeman, Ned, 245

Zemeckis, Robert, 312

Zeta-Jones, Catherine, xi, 256, 303, 313, 316, 321

Ziskin, Laura, 137, 139, 149–51, 175, 176, 177, 183, 221, 222, 253–55, 257, 266, 268–69, 297, 302, 311

Zoo
Story, The
(Albee), 301

Zumbrunnen, Eric, 205, 211, 275–76, 277, 279

Zwang, Ron, 2

Zwick, Ed, 220–22, 322–23

In writing this book I was fortunate to have the generous cooperation of the directors who are profiled in it, along with many of their friends, relatives, and counterparts. The producers and studio executives who brought their films into the world were equally giving of their time. I could not have written this book without them. I conducted many interviews with knowledgeable sources who declined to provide their names because they wanted to avoid retaliation in Hollywood; whenever possible I tried to independently verify their accounts or provided alternate versions from other sources. But by far most of the information in this book came from dozens and dozens of on-the-record interviews and discussions the length and breadth of the entertainment industry, many of which do not appear in the footnotes but which provide background and context for
Rebels.

Many friends, peers, and mentors provided their advice and moral support through the conception to the execution of the book. Sincere thanks to my editors at
The Washington Post
, for their encouragement and book leave. Thanks too to my editors and colleagues at
The New York Times
for their support. My research assistant Andrew Edwards was indefatigable in chasing down sources and footnotes, and responded whenever I needed him. My friend and agent Andrew Blauner was an ongoing source of enthusiasm and vital support; a debt of gratitude to my friend Joel Bernstein for his advice and creativity. Many thanks to my capable and wise
editor, Henry Ferris, who was a fan of this project from the moment he got the proposal. Thanks too are owed to Peter Hubbard, Susan Sanguily, and Sharyn Rosenblum at HarperCollins.

Most of all, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my husband, Claude, and children, Alexandra, Jeremy, and Daniel, who saw me disappear into my office for endless nights, weekends, and family vacations to complete this project. My thanks to them, to whom this book is dedicated, for allowing me to pursue my passion.

P.S.
Insights, Interviews & More …

About the author

2
Meet Sharon Waxman

About the book

4
Outtakes from
Rebels:
George Clooney’s
Three Kings
Letters

Read on

11
The Nudist Buddhist Borderline-Abusive Love-in

11
Rebels
Timeline

S
HARON
W
AXMAN
is the
New York Times’
Hollywood correspondent, a position she has held since the end of 2003.

She first covered Hollywood for the
Washington Post’s
Style section in 1995, becoming the paper’s first correspondent to do so from Los Angeles.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she attended Barnard College, where she studied English literature. She earned a master’s of philosophy degree in Modern Middle East Studies from St. Antony’s College at Oxford University.

Having learned both Hebrew and Arabic during her studies, Waxman went to work for the Reuters news agency in Jerusalem and covered the first Palestinian intifada in 1988 and 1989. She moved to Paris at the end of 1989, just as Europe was uniting, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and Eastern Europe was undergoing its velvet revolutions. A freelance and contract writer, she reported for six years on the culture, politics, and economy of France and other parts of Western
Europe and made frequent forays into Eastern Europe and North Africa. Her dispatches appeared in a variety of U.S. newspapers, including the
Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald
, and
Los Angeles Times
, eventually landing her a contract with the
Washington Post.
The
Post
then offered Waxman a full-time position in a place she never expected to land: Los Angeles.

Before joining the
Times
, she returned to the Middle East on several occasions in order to write about the post-9/11 world and the East-West culture conflict; an acclaimed series, along with other feature stories, emerged from these visits.

Waxman has become a leading voice among Hollywood correspondents, “known for her tough, skeptical view of Hollywood and her thorough, scrupulously researched stories”
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
. Her coverage of the industry extends to frequent appearances as a television commentator.

She lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.

For more information visit www.sharonwaxman.com.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

George Clooney wrote a series of letters related to the making of
Three Kings.
Here is the full text of those letters.

Letter to
Three Kings
director David O. Russell,
c. March 1998

David,

I was on the set of
Batman and Robin
when I first saw a tape of
Flirting with Disaster.
(I remember thinking how similar the two were.)

When I heard you were developing a film at Warner Bros., I called Lorenzo [di Bonaventura] and said I wanted in. I hadn’t read the script.

Now I have. O.K. So I know basically what’s going on. Tom Cruise! Makes sense to me. And if his dance card is full, I don’t know who you have next on your list, I know I’m not on it. (And with films like
Batman and Robin
I don’t blame you.)

But I couldn’t sleep at night if I let a project this good go away without making one attempt.

I just finished a film [Out
of Sight]
with Steven Soderbergh and Scott Frank. It kicks ass. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I kick ass. What I know is that I could screen it for you. Even toss in some Goobers.

You’ll get who you want for this. I just didn’t want an agent or a studio trying to sell you on me. I can screw this up all by myself.

Anyway, I thought I’d take a shot.

George

Letter to Warner Bros. cochairman Terry Semel
regarding
Three Kings
, September 1998

Kempinski Hotel Atlantic, Hamburg

Dear Terry,

I know we’re all put in an awkward position on this one.

If the decision only involved my safety then I would say let’s do it.

However, I’m not the head of a company, nor do I have a responsibility to hundreds of employees.

On top of the film being controversial, it is also not an easy moneymaker. The only thing it really could be is an exceptionally fine movie. Oscar caliber. But if we soften the story points, then we’ll end up with a watered down version of this script. Giving us still a controversial film, with even less chance of making money.

In other words, in my opinion, if we were to do this film, we’d have to do it all the way. For monetary reasons and for artistic reasons.

You’re right when you say that this is fiction. But the Gulf War was not. The takeover of the Shiites was real. The cruelties on both sides did happen and are documented. This is not a terrorist film, it’s a war film. If it’s too soon to make it, then let’s wait rather than homogenizing this script. I’d love to give it a shot as is. I’d like to do it here at WB, because this is my home. If that means waiting, I will. But if that’s not a viable solution, then give David back his script and let him make it somewhere else.