Rebels on the Backlot (56 page)

294 “I wanted the Pauline Kaels of today …”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.

294 “Early on in
Fight Club
…”: David Thomson, “Brilliance and Promise Will Only Go So Far,”
New York Times
, October 17, 1999.

295 “visionary and disturbing …”: Janet Maslin, “Such a Very Long Way from Duvets to Danger,”
New York Times
, October 15, 1999.

295 “a provocative experience …”: Stephen Hunter,
“Fight Club:
No Holds Barred,”
Washington Post
, October 15, 1999.

295 Anita Busch, wrote a scathing column: Anita Busch, “On the Beat,”
Hollywood Reporter
, October 12, 1999.

296 “I don’t care if you didn’t like the movie …”: Mechanic, author interview.

296 Anita Busch letter to David Poland: Courtesy David Poland.

296 Fincher overheard two women: Pulver, “Fight the Good Fight.”

296 “I honestly thought the film was funny …”: David Fincher, author interview.

296 “a sharp stick in the eye …”: ‘Todd Doogan,’ “Todd Doogan Interviews David Fincher” available at
www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/fightclub/fincherinterview.html

297 “It wasn’t violence with no context…”: Laura Ziskin, author interview.

297
“Fight Club
belongs to a distinct moment …”: Gavin Smith, “Gavin Smith Goes One-on-One with David Fincher,”
Film Comment
, September/October 1999.

297 “an incredibly irresponsible film”: David Konow, “PTA meeting,”
Creative Screenwriting
7, no. 1 (January 2000).

298 “In some ways Quentin inspired me …”: David O. Russell, author interview.

298 “It’s the rare movie …”: Quentin Tarantino, author interview.

298 News item, Auburn, Washington: Beth Laski, “Injury linked to
Fight Club
Match,”
Hollywood Reporter
, November 1, 1999.

299 News item, Utah: Julie Cart, “Utah Governor’s Son Charged in
Fight Club,” Los Angeles Times
, April 11, 2002.

299 News item,
Bumfight:
“Fight Clubbed,”
Hollywood Reporter
, June 23, 2003.

300 “Ever been at a movie where people all laugh, cheer, and clap …”: Blayne Haggart,
“Fight Club
Cult: Why the Brad Pitt Film Has Risen from Box Office Bomb to Satirical Masterpiece,”
Ottowa Citizen
, May 7, 2000.

300 “I need one of those clubs”: New York
Daily News
, September 15, 1999.

301 “Once in a great while …”: David Green, “Counterpunch: The
Fight Club
Debate,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 1, 1999.

301 “It was palpable …”: Edward Norton, author interview.

302 “In twenty, thirty years …”: Tom Sherak, author interview.

302 Murdoch “thought this was a despicable movie”: Mechanic, author interview.

302 “Any movie can get you fired …”: Mechanic, author interview.

303 “Are you offering him the part …” Laura Bickford, Benicio Del Toro, author interviews.

304 He went down over the border: Del Toro, author interview.

304 “My character was not very researched …”: Del Toro, author interview.

304 “The thing is, I had to believe …”: Del Toro, author interview.

304 “So many times we’ve done movies …”: Hugh Hart, “Every Word Counts, If He Can Help It,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 31, 2000.

305 “Benicio was better as a bad guy …”: Confidential source, author interview.

306 Seagram’s chief, Edgar Bronfman, Jr.: Geraldine Fabrikant, “Diller Is Leaving Vivendi Entertainment Post,”
New York Times
, March 20, 2003.

306 “USA is hunting for smart thrillers …”: Charles Lyons and Dan Cox, “USA Now on Map,”
Variety
, February 18, 2000.

306 “There was a sense of quiet desperation …”: Russell Schwartz, author interview.

307 “an abused-child executive”: Confidential source, author interview.

307 “We didn’t want to be at Miramax …”: Bickford, author interview.

307 “Why haven’t you offered Harrison this movie?”: Bickford, author interview.

308 “But we’re shooting in March …”: Bickford, author interview.

309 “Pat, we only have two million dollars …”: Bickford, author interview.

309 Ford’s script changes: Steven Soderbergh, author interview.

310 “It was a real mess”: Bickford, author interview.

310 “Let’s get Harrison and make the film at USA …”: Bickford, author interview.

310 Murdoch owed Rice’s father a debt …: Tom Sherak, author interview.

311 eventually fronting $200,000: Soderbergh, author interview.

311 “
Traffic
Jammed with Talent,”
Variety
, January 27, 2000.

311 “Fox
Traffic
Jams: Ford, Zeta-Jones Onboard for Soderbergh Pic,”
Variety
, February 16, 2000.

311 “Ford Exits
Traffic
as Talks Collapse,”
Variety
, February 24, 2000.

312 “He didn’t have to give a reason”: Soderbergh, author interview.

312 “We all thought he should do the movie …”: John Lesher, author interview.

312 “We were all hoping on Sunday…”: Bickford, author interview.

312 “We were pushing so hard …”: Soderbergh, author interview.

313 $10 million up front: Bickford, author interview; Jim Wiatt, author interviews.

313 “Michael Douglas with a higher price tag …”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.

314 “Promise me you will not call Jim Wiatt …”: Pat Dollard, author interview.

314 “Someone had to call Jim Wiatt …”: Dollard, author interview.

314 Wiatt does not recall: Wiatt, author interview.

314 “He’ll do it for $5 million …”: Dollard, author interview.

314 Bickford got a phone call: Bickford, author interview.

315 “a $49 million Dogma film …”: Soderbergh in
Film Comment
, January 2001.

316 “It’s the kind of question …”: Schwartz, author interview.

316 Soderbergh threatened to drop the project. …David Jensen, author interview.

316 “He said it very strongly”: Schwartz, author interview.

316 “The first day’s footage was fine …”: Soderbergh, author interview.

316 “It was white”: Bickford, author interview.

316 “We called the lab, freaking out”: Bickford, author interview.

316 “We never did figure out what happened …”: Bickford, author interview.

316 they learned it cost only $3,000 to order a hit: Bickford, author interview.

317 “Can you imagine …”: Bickford, author interview.

317 “I’d shoot any fucking thing …”: Anthony Kaufman, ed.,
Steve Soderbergh Interviews
(Jackson: University of Press of Mississippi, 2002), 150.

317 “I loved working like that…”: Del Toro, author interview.

318 Del Toro didn’t like the white T-shirt: Del Toro, author interview.

318 Soderbergh “Maniphesto” published in
Variety
, August 17, 1998.

319 He called five times in a day: Bickford, author interview.

320 Screen Actors Guild complained: Ethan Nadelmann, author interview.

320 Casting Albert Finney: Bickford, author interview.

321 “I had a lot of conversations with Gaghan …”: Soderbergh, author interview.

322 “We were doing the first take …”: Bickford, author interview.

322 “My argument was, if we believe in this movie …”: Schwartz, author interview.

323 “We thought Barry Diller was getting bored …”: Schwartz, author interview.

323 “It was like they’d been waiting …”: Sean Mitchell, “Protesting Another Misgudied War,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 7, 2001.

324 “You don’t have to be an artist…”: Owen Gleiberman, “The High Drama,”
Entertainment Weekly
, January 5, 2001.

324 “
Traffic
offers an astoundingly vivid …”: David Denby, “Fast Track; Movies for the Holidays,”
New Yorker
, December 25, 2000.

324 “a willingly anonymous Everyman …”: Ella Taylor, “In a Lonely Place,”
L.A. Weekly
, December 22, 2000.

324 Michael Wilmington: Michael Wilmington, “Show-Stopping
Traffic,” Chicago Tribune
, January 5, 2001.

325 “Given what this film shows …”: Kenneth Turan, “Blurring the Battle Lines: Traffic Examines the Costly War Against Drugs. But It Puts Back From Its Logical Conclusion,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 27, 2000.

325 “People were asking me …”: Rick Lyman, “Traffic Screenplay Author Comes Clean About the Long Weekend That Changed His Life,”
New York Times
, February 15, 2001.

326 “Where I come from people …”: Bickford, author interview.

326 “bogged down by generic formulas …”: Richard Porton,
Traffic
Review,
Cineaste
, Summer 2001.

327 “I thought it was sobering …”: Lewis Break, “Ray Kelly: Film’s the Real Deal,” New York
Daily News
, December 27, 2000

327 “Shame on you”: Michael Massing, “The Reel Drug War,”
Nation
, February 15, 2001.

328
“The Nation’s
Michael Massing wrote a piece …”: Ibid.

328 Gary Rosen called to resist that path: Gary Rosen,
“Traffic
and the War on Drugs,” by
Commentary
(April 2001).

328 William Bennett warned: William Bennet, “The Real Lessons from
Traffic.” Washington Post
, February 18, 2001.

328 “They were disturbed by the depiction of drug abuse …”: Bill Hendrick,
“Traffic,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, January 31, 2001.

328 “Within months the dialogue …”: Soderbergh, author interview.

329 “You sent us the Spanish version”: Schwartz, author interview.

330 “He’s a born-again filmmaker …”: David Ansen, “From
Erin Brockovich
to
Traffic
in One Short Year,”
Newsweek
, January 8, 2001.

330 “That period of
Out of Sight, The Limey
…”: Soderbergh, author interview.

331 “… the process has gotten much harder …”: Soderbergh, author interview.

333 Russell evening at MoMA: Videotape of event, courtesy David O. Russell.

334 Natalie Herniak, had asked Spike Jonze: Natalie Herniak, author interview.

334 “That night felt like …”: John Lesher, author interview.

335 Russell backed out: David O. Russell, author interview.

336 “We sent everyone
Requiem for a Dream
…”: Darren Aronofsky, author interview.

337 “Here’s payback for
Traffic
…”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.

338
“Fight Club
is very much about the psychological fallout …”: Edward Norton, author interview.

339 “I didn’t watch
Boogie Nights …
”: Quentin Tarantino, author interview.

340 “This is a story that goes back all the way to the …”: Steven Soderbergh, author interview.

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

About Schmidt
, xx, 337

Abraham, Marc, 124

Acord, Lance, 204, 205, 208, 209

Adaptation
, 155, 176, 206, 207, 275, 279, 337–38

Aday, Meat Loaf, 225

Aerosmith, 147

Affleck, Ben, 27, 80

Air Force One
, xvi

Albee, Edward, 301

Alda, Alan, 48, 216

Alien 3
, 140, 147–49

Allen, Woody, xiv

All That Jazz
, 145

Almost Famous
, 179, 192

Altman, Robert, x, 97, 172, 315, 339

Amadeus
, xvi

American Beauty
, 175–76, 251, 252, 283–84, 337

American Dream
, 39–40

American Graffiti
, 143

American History X
, 178, 290–91

American Psycho
, 134

Amiel, Jon, 32

Anders, Allison, 32, 131

Anderson, Ernie, 83–85, 117, 118, 193

Anderson, Juliet, 174

Anderson, Marguerite, 84

Anderson, Paul Thomas, xi-xiv, xviii-xxi, 32, 76–77, 81, 83–92, 115–18, 120–23, 165–74, 191–98, 218, 251, 252, 268, 284–90, 297–98, 336, 339

Anderson, Wes, x, xiii, 32, 120, 129, 231–32, 334, 336, 337, 339

Angels with Dirty Faces
, 329

Anna and the King
, 27, 302

Ansen, David, 171, 172, 278, 330

Apocalypse Now
, x

Apple, Fiona, 193–94, 286

Arbus, Diane, 163

Aronofsky, Darren, x-xi, 336

Arquette, Patricia, 109, 334

Arquette, Rosanna, 69, 71

Ashby, Hal, x, 339

Asner, Jules, 337

Assassins
, 213

Au Revoir les Enfants
, 28–29

Austin Powers
movies, 192–93

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The
, 143

Avary, Gretchen, 54, 82

Avary, Roger, 10–11, 20–23, 27, 28–29, 31, 54–59, 68, 77, 82, 133–34, 339

Bacon, Francis, 163

Bad News Bears, The
, 143

Ball, Alan, 283, 284

Bangs, Lance, 207

Barb Wire
, 233

Barrett, K. K., 205, 207–8, 277

Barrier, Chuck, 97

Barron, Craig, 146

Barrymore, Drew, 158

Bart, Peter, 39

Barton Fink
, xii

Basketball Diaries, The
, 260

Batman and Robin
, 228

Beastie Boys, 158, 162

Beatty, Warren, 51, 166

Being John Malkovich
, xiv, xviii, 107, 120, 154–58, 161–65, 184–90, 204–11, 236, 251, 275–79, 281

Bell, Ross, 139–41, 149, 175, 176

Bender, Lawrence, 26–28, 30–31, 40, 42, 55, 58–59, 69, 71, 74–75, 76, 133, 138

Bening, Annette, 284

Bennett, William, 328

Beowulf
, 133

Berkus, Jim, 314

Bernard, Midge,
see
Soderbergh, Midge

Bernard

Bernard, Paul, 244

Berry, Halle, 27