TARANTINO AT CANNES: ‘HATEFUL 8’
AND ‘DJANGO’ NEWS
Franco Nero, Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman
picture by Getty Images
Quentin Tarantino was at Cannes to
present A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS on closing night, and had plenty to say – or tease
– about his upcoming Western projects, according to Deadline: Hollywood. About THE HATEFUL EIGHT, once cancelled, then
revived after doing the live audience reading: “I have calmed down a bit from
the knife in the back. The wound is starting to scab.” He said the staged
reading was “…a blast. I might do that on every script. It was great to have three days of rehearsal
and hear it out loud.” The second draft is nearly finished, and he’s
contemplating a third. “I’m in no hurry. Maybe I’ll shoot it. Maybe I’ll
publish it. Maybe I’ll do it on the stage. Maybe I’ll do all three.”
Also, with an hour and a half of
unused scenes from DJANGO UNCHAINED, he’s considering a four-hour
miniseries. “The idea is to cut together
a four-hour version…cut it up into one-hour chapters like a four-part
miniseries and show it on cable television. People love those!”
SABAN FILM ACQUIRES ‘THE HOMESMAN’
AT CANNES
In what was described by Deadline:
Hollywood as “a competitive situation,” Saban
Films, a brand-new entity of Saban
Entertainment, has acquired the North American distribution rights to the
well-reviewed Western, for about $3,500,000.
Based on Glendon Swarthout’s 1988 novel, the film is directed by and
stars Tommy Lee Jones, co-starring with Hilary Swank, with a supporting cast
that includes Meryl Street, James Spader, John Lithgow, Hailee Steinfeld, and
Barry Corbin.
Saban Entertainment has a
long history of kid entertainment, long associated with various incarnations of
the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, but they have had considerable experience in
distribution and production of features as well, beginning in 1988 with the
remarkable HEATHERS. They’ve also been
involved with at least two previous Westerns.
In 1994 they distributed TRIGGER FAST, based on a J.T. Edson novel,
starring Jurgen Prochnow, Martin Sheen and Corbin Bernsen. That same year they produced the Western
comedy SAMAURI COWBOY, starring Hiromi Go, Robert Conrad and Catherine Mary
Stewart. They also own the beautiful
Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, built in 1930 as the Fox Wilshire.
ORIGINAL ‘DJANGO’ ATTENDS CANNES
‘FISTFUL’ CLOSING SCREENING
Franco Nero with DJANGO LIVES producer
David Hollander
Franco Nero, the original DJANGO,
soon to star in DJANGO LIVES!, attended the Cannes closing screening of A
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS; he’s seen here with DJANGO LIVES! producer Davis
Hollander. The screening was to honor
the 50th anniversary of the Spaghetti Western, and it’s amusing that
Nero attended, as the great debate among fans has always been whether the
Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood films or the Sergio Corbucci/Franco Nero films are
the greatest of the genre. I refuse to
choose. But what is inarguable is that
Clint Eastwood is the image of the Spaghetti Western in the United States, and
Franco Nero is the image in Europe.
‘RESURRECTION OF EL PURO’ STARTS
PRE-PRODUCTION
Not all the Western action was at Cannes this
week! Here’s Chip Baker Film’s Cesar Mendez with the original El
Puro, Robert Woods in Los Angeles, on the first day of pre-production of
RESURRECTION OF EL PURO, the sequel to the 1969 EL PURO (a.k.a. La taglia
è tua... l'uomo l'ammazzo io) . The script is finally locked, and they plan
to roll camera in late September, after the 2014 Almeria Western Film Festival has wrapped. Starring Woods, of course, the cast will
include Western stalwarts Brett Halsey, Simone Blondel, Nicolleta Machiavelli,
and Antonio Mayans.
B
MOVIE – A Play by Michael B. Druxman
A Review
In a way, traveling to the period of B-MOVIE,
Michael Druxman’s play about the Barbara Payton/Franchot Tone/Tom Neal scandal,
is more of a time-warp than going back to the Civil War: it’s a trip from the
Post-Morality present to the 1950s, when a morality
clause was something to keep an actor, not a basketball-team owner, in
line.
Today, there may be no such thing as bad publicity –
the once-clear line between fame and infamy has been erased. Kim Kardashian became a media star with no
other talent or credentials than staring in a home porn video: this week she
and rapper Kanye West had an exorbitantly expensive wedding in Italy, her
third, and she wore white. In the 1950s,
one single still photograph was taken of Barbara Payton and Tom Neal doing
something similar to Kim’s video: it ended both of their careers.
B-MOVIE is a two-act, three-character play about
three very real characters, who suddenly were forced into the spotlight of public
moral judgment. They were all known
actors with varying degrees of success.
Franchot Tone was the big
star, ever since 1935, and the splash he made with MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Under contract to MGM, and later other
studios, he worked regularly with Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Spencer
Tracy. Suave, elegant, educated; but his
character rarely got the girl. He was
Ralph Bellamy until Ralph Bellamy
came along. His first marriage was to
Joan Crawford, and he’d have three more, including Payton. I liked him best, cast against type, in an
underrated noir from Universal, THE
PHANTOM LADY. It’s the only role I
recall where his character was as dangerous as Tone could really be, when
crossed.
Barbara Payton, 22 years Tone’s junior, was a
platinum blonde beauty who impressed in the early 1950s opposite Cagney with
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE, opposite Gregory Peck in ONLY THE VALIANT, and opposite
Guy Madison in the Civil War drama DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH. Not coy, she admits in her autobiography that
she slept with most of her producers, directors and leading men. Gregory Peck found her presence so
distracting and disturbing that he had her banned from their set when she
wasn’t working. Even when she was going
with Tone, she and Guy Madison were less than discreet about their relationship.
from JUNGLE GIRL
Compared to Tone and even to Payton, Tom Neal was a
bit out of his league. Even with a long
list of credits going back to 1938, his roles were usually minor, often unnamed
characters – typically, in an episode of
THE GENE AUTRY SHOW his character is ‘animal abuser.’ But he was a big, handsome guy with a strong
jaw and a great physique, shown off well without a shirt, as the male lead in
the Republic serial JUNGLE GIRL. He was
with the Duke in FLYING TIGERS, with Rondo Hatton in THE BRUTE MAN, and his
biggest break doubtless was as the star of Edgar G. Ulmer’s no-budget noir, DETOUR. But what a picture to be the lead in;
sometimes described as the best B-movie of all time, it is only considered that
by the sort of moviegoer who would rather laugh at a bad movie than enjoy the
qualities of a good one. It is ironic
indeed that Neal plays a hapless dope traveling to L.A. to meet up with his
fiancé, and en route keeps accidentally killing people. When he finally did kill someone in real
life, he’d claim that was an accident, too.
Druxman’s play starts in the 1960s, with Tone, his
career and dignity somewhat recovered, living in a New York brownstone. Neal is in Palm Springs, in a cell, waiting
to go on trial for the murder of his third wife. Tone is astonished and amused to be asked to
contribute money to Neal’s defense – the former Golden Gloves fighter nearly
beat Tone to death over Payton. And yes,
it really did happen. And yes, Tone did
contribute.
Gregory Peck and Barbara Payton in
ONLY THE VALIANT
They sometimes address each other, sometimes speak
directly to the audience. The story
bounces back and forth between the two men and their memories of Barbara
Payton, the woman who loved them both, who made and changed decisions, who made
and broke promises, and ruined both men’s lives, and her own. Although some would say that what ruined
Payton and Neal was the photograph, and what ruined Tone was being a husband
brought so low that he papered the studios with it.
Payton and Tone
It's a fascinating and tragic story, told with humor and empathy,
and a great sense of the people and time and place involved. After I read it, I watched MUNTINY ON THE
BOUNTY, and DETOUR, and Payton in BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, and was struck by how
well Druxman captured their voices in his words. No surprise, really. After a long career as a publicist, Michael
became a very busy writer and sometime-director for Roger Corman, scripting
CHEYENNE WARRIOR, one of the best Westerns of the last twenty years.
As much devoted to theatre as he is to film, Druxman has written
and published a series of one-person biographical plays of the stars, called
THE HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS, which have seen numerous productions. Their subjects include Spencer Tracy, Clark
Gable, Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Clara Bow
– his best-selling, and Al Jolson – his most successfully produced.
In addition to his talent, all of us struggling writers can take a
lesson from Michael, who aggressively gets his work out there like no one else
I know. B-MOVIE is in negotiations
currently, but it is a very new play, and there have been as yet no stage
productions. If you’re looking for a two
male, one female play with simple sets, check it out. You can purchase this play or his others
through Amazon.com. If you’re interested
in licensing a play, write to him: Michael B. Druxman, PMB 142, 6425 S. IH-35,
Suite 150, Austin, TX 78744, or email him at druxy@ix.netcom.com. You can
visit his official site HERE . You can
read my interview with Michael HERE .
Neal and Payton
SILENT SCREENINGS SAT. AT EGYPTIAN
FEATURE MICKEY ‘MCGUIRE’ ROONEY!
On Saturday, May 31st, the Retroformat
folks, the ones who show rare silents in 8mm, are taking a break from their
D.W. Griffith series to show a varied program including the role that made
Mickey Rooney a star – and no, it’s not Andy Hardy. It’s the Mickey
McGuire films, a silent series capitalizing on the success of Hal Roach’s Our Gang comedies. They’ll be screening Mickey in MICKEY’S
MOVIES; Harry Langdon in SOLDIER MAN, one of his earliest collaborations with
Frank Capra; DANGER GIRL, a Mack Sennett
Comedy starring Gloria Swanson; Larry Semon (why didn’t he change his
name?) in THE SHOW; and chapters 11 & 12 of the serial THE WOMAN IN
GREY. There will be a live musical
accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.
THAT'S A WRAP!
I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you took time to remember that it's more than a three-day weekend: it's a day to honor the memory of men and women who gave their lives to preserve our freedom!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright May 2014 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved
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