Hollywood producers discuss firings, finances

2009-11-18

By Matthew Belloni and Stephen Galloway

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - What does a movie producer actually do? To find out, The Hollywood Reporter gathered the men behind six of the season's most buzz-worthy films -- Lawrence Bender ("Inglourious Basterds"), Jon Landau ("Avatar"), Laurence Mark ("Julie & Julia"), Bill Mechanic ("Coraline"), Mace Neufeld ("Invictus") and Ivan Reitman ("Up in the Air").

WHAT'S THE TOUGHEST DECISION YOU'VE MADE AS A PRODUCER?

Laurence Mark: Jennifer Hudson. Toughest decision. Because if you go wrong there, you go wrong on that movie ("Dreamgirls").

Jon Landau: Ultimately it goes back to casting. There was a film I was on several years ago where we had to fire our second supporting actress. That was a very tough decision to do a couple weeks into the shoot, but you have to because ultimately that's what movies are about. There was no chemistry.

Mark: It's hard to say goodbye to someone, but you almost always should.

Ivan Reitman: If you're thinking about it, you better do it.

Landau: That applies to cast or crew or whoever.

Reitman: I've been doing this for about 40 years and I've produced about 50 movies and I think in that process I remember only firing one director. And I've worked with about a dozen first-timers. I'd say the toughest decisions have to do with firing people, but in particular firing the director.

Landau: Thank God Jason is talented! (Reitman's son, Jason, directed "Up in the Air.") (Laughs)

Mace Neufeld: I had to fire an actor because the director didn't like the toupee he was wearing. The actor didn't want to change his toupee and the director didn't want to fire the actor. (Laughs.) And on "The Hunt for Red October," we started shooting without Sean Connery: We were two weeks into the shoot and Klaus-Maria Brandauer was supposed to play Markus Ramius, and he wouldn't sign his contract. He said, "I need 10 days in the middle of the schedule because I've directed a film for a friend," and I said, "We can't give you 10 days." Connery had turned the part down because he thought he had throat cancer and I got a call from (his agent) Marty Baum and he said, "What about Sean for that part?"

Bill Mechanic: We shot for 30 days on "X-Men" without Wolverine, without Hugh Jackman. It was originally somebody who got very big and dropped out, and literally we went off an audition tape. He was doing Gaston (in an Australian stage production of "Beauty and the Beast") and he looked like a young Clint Eastwood. We flew him in and said, "If he's got charisma he's got the job."

JON, HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH FOX CHANGED BETWEEN "TITANIC" AND "AVATAR"?

Landau: For "Avatar," the originality of the piece -- not being based on material, not having a star -- that was the biggest hurdle in getting going. The day-to-day production is pretty much the same, from a studio-funded perspective.

Mark: Do you find the studio is watching you a little more now?

Landau: I don't think "Avatar" is a good case to judge that. Overall, absolutely, studios want to control and control and control. The studios have lost an appreciation of how to work with producers, and what role a producer can play to benefit them.

Reitman: It's a role that has been totally discounted over the last 10 years. It really started with the rise of the managers and the agencies. For a while, when it was all about the package, and the agencies got the control. When managers took over as producers, they were more into packaging. So there was a discount of what a good producer does. We have a lot to contribute in terms of development of the story and balancing the creative and fiscal responsibilities. (In) the studios, even today, during a time of recession, there are too many development guys with nothing to do, and they're really taking over the job, and they're not as good.

Lawrence Bender: Most directors do want to come in on budget, most directors don't want to look irresponsible. Especially in these times. So a producer is a good partner. If you're going to steal from Peter to pay Paul, you've got to know who you're stealing from.

LAWRENCE, DID THE FINANCING EVER LOOK PERILOUS ON "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS"? AT SOME POINT YOU BROUGHT IN UNIVERSAL SO THAT IT WAS NO LONGER JUST A WEINSTEIN CO. PICTURE. WAS THAT

BECAUSE WEINSTEIN HAD MONEY PROBLEMS?

Bender: Quentin (Tarantino) is extremely loyal to Harvey (Weinstein). He's like a father or an older brother. I think Quentin felt like "Let's support Harvey," but Harvey doesn't have a foreign distribution arm so "Let's bring in a great distribution arm." And David Linde at Universal really made Quentin feel comfortable. There was a lot of talk during the making of the movie and even now about Harvey and his money. It was a bit of a distraction, honestly, but Harvey was always very clear in a little room with Quentin and me: "Whatever everyone's saying, whatever those bankers are saying, whatever everyone in the world is saying, that money is set aside for you guys."

COULD YOU MAKE "PULP FICTION" TODAY WITH THE SAME PEOPLE?

Bender: It's a tough question because, in a way, "Pulp Fiction" was great for independent cinema and in a way it was bad. It made everyone understand that you could make an independent movie and make lots of money, but everyone is expected to make a grand-slam hit.

Mechanic: Every movie that succeeds beyond expectations in some ways hurts everybody else.

Bender: It changes expectations. Back then, we made the movie for $8 million, and we had that cast. John Travolta used to laugh about it: By the time he paid for his own hotel room and this and that, his fee was lower than his expenses.

Mark: It was money well spent.

Landau: A lot of the product you're talking about, it's all unique.

Mechanic: Which is the antithesis of what the corporations want. They're after the same, because that's more predictable.

Mark: The top priority of a studio is "Let's make a movie that does not depend on execution. A movie that will do well no matter how awful it is." Which is why branding is going on. If you had a movie called "Kleenex," I'm sure I could sell it.

Mechanic: Do you have the rights yet?

IVAN, HOW IS THE RELATIONSHIP DIFFERENT WHEN THE DIRECTOR IS YOUR SON?

Reitman: I have to stop being his father, I have to be his producer, which is a subtly different job. I'd say the biggest disagreement we had was over Vera Farmiga, who is a wonderful actress but she was eight months pregnant about two months before he started shooting. He said "Look, I wrote it for her, I think she'll be perfect." And she was as big as a house! As a producer, I have to say to him, "I know she's a great actress, she's going to be great in it, but she's got to be someone George Clooney is going to fall in love with." There were all kinds of actresses who wanted to play this part, bigger names than Vera was at that moment, so I kept saying, "Well, how about her?" But he just hung in there. I had to really defend his decision, and I know he agonized about it enormously. There were a couple rough opening scenes -- first days -- that he reshot at the end of the schedule to give her a little more time to get into shape. Apart from that, there was really no downside.

WHO HAD FINAL CUT ON THAT PICTURE?

Reitman: I technically had it by virtue of my contract. And I said, "It's all yours." (Jason) didn't want to get hassled. He got hassled a little bit on his earlier movies so I said, "I'm going to tell you what I think, but you're going to have final cut." I had to fight with him a little bit. There were a few things that I helped him be objective about. But I'd say 75% of the time when we disagreed, he did what he wanted. It was a very interesting period for me, both as a producer and as a dad.

WHAT'S YOUR WORST EXPERIENCE AS A PRODUCER?

Neufeld: I did a film with a director that had a drug problem.

Mechanic: Name names!

Neufeld: No. The last week of the film, the DP (director of photography) and I had to lock him in a hotel room and finish the last week. Then I had one director who had attention deficit disorder. You'd do things like introduce him to people on the set and then he'd go away and come back and reintroduce himself to the person I just introduced him to.

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