So That's What Happened

I just read Art Linson's What Just Happened?, a book about his life as a major Hollywood producer. He tries to show how the producer, ideally, pulls together all the creative aspects of a film while dealing with the money side as well. The book was turned into a movie starring Robert De Niro, and the screenplay is now included. (He worked with De Niro a lot, and one of the running gags in the book is every script he has he sends to De Niro, hoping to sign him on.)

Linson concentrates on the five films he made in the late 90s at Twentieth Century Fox, but he first made his name in the business in the 70s with Car Wash. He was involved in a fair number of respected and/or successful films: American Hot Wax, Melvin And Howard, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Untouchables, Dick Tracy and Heat when Fox brought him aboard. And he went on to produce five disappointments. That's how it goes. What were they?

The Edge: Written by David Mamet, originally entitled Bookworm, the studio hated the title, so changed it to something generic. Linson thinks of it as the "bear movie," since it's about two guys who hate each other, Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, stuck in the woods with a killer bear afoot. Both are fine actors, but neither were big draws, and the film was not a hit. The best story is about how Alec Baldwin wanted to keep his beard (an anecdote that shows up in the movie of the book). He insisted it was for his character, but Linson suspects it may have been so he didn't look fat.

Great Expectations: An update of the Dickens' novel, starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. Didn't really grab an audience. De Niro agreed to appear in this one, though apparently a big reason was because he could shoot the role in a week.

Pushing Tin: A film starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton about the crazy world of air traffic controllers. Everything went smoothly, acquiring the property, getting the okay, writing the script, finding the stars, shooting it. Unfortunately, when it was done, no one wanted to see it.

Fight Club: It may be a cult classic today, but when it was screened for the Fox executives, they were aghast. And after the huge hit Seven, also by director David Fincher and star Brad Pitt, this was not what they wanted to see. When all was said and done it showed a small profit, and the title burnishes Linson's resume, but this was not the sort of film that would make them renew his contract.

Sunset Strip: Haven't heard of it? That's because Fox dumped this low-budget film, about Linson's days in the early 70s rock and roll world, into one theatre (a contractual thing) before going straight to video. No big names, though it sounds like an engaging cast--Simon Baker, Anna Friel, Rory Cochrane, Jared Leto, Mary Lynn Rajskub and others.

Linson names names and seems to have burned some bridges. In particular, there's a pretty tough portrait of Fox exec Tom Rothman, who comes across as a meddling no-talent. Rothman has since become CEO of Fox, so I guess Linson won't be making any films there soon. (I don't know Rothman personally, but I like his TV appearances.)

Since those films, Linson has forged on. He's worked with some Mamet-directed films, such as Heist, a skateboarding film, Lords Of Dogtown, Sean Penn's adaptation of Into The Wild (Penn is another Linson favorite) and returned to rock and roll with The Runaways. None were big hits--in fact, I'd say most were disappointments--but they're nothing to be ashamed of.

And how did the highly fictionalized movie version of Linson's book do? De Niro or no, it flopped. That's what being a producer is all about.