Posts Tagged ‘Harmony Korine’

This week, FilmNewsBriefs sat down with Rachael Horovitz. Formerly a high level executive at both New Line Cinema and Revolution Studios, she is now an independent producer. We spoke about the differences between being a studio executive and a producer, how Rachael set up ‘Moneyball’ at Sony and the origins of her Emmy Award-winning film “Grey Gardens.”

FilmNewsBriefs: From working for a studio to working as an independent producer, what do you see as the major difference?
Rachael Horovitz: The major difference, which I knew, it wasn’t a surprise to me in any way, was that when I had an idea that I thought was a really good idea there was only one buyer. Both companies, New Line and Revolution, allowed for a sort of second stop. If my boss passed I could often go get money from another source and then come back, which I did do a few times. But there were only those two avenues. There’s no question, I definitely feel that I’m genetically predisposed to do what I do. The way in which I grew up and the genes, which I inherited from my parents, gave me a need to see through some of my ideas.

FNB: Is there a film that you loved that was lost to the studio system?
RH: I’m so excited and going crazy about ‘Precious’ because when I was at Fine Line I wanted to buy the book in galleys. The day I was turned down by all my bosses, I went home thinking that I was this idiot and I have no right to do what I do because this is way too dark to be a movie. And what’s wrong with me that I would mention this in a staff meeting? So I feel giddy that Lee Daniels pulled it off and Oprah Winfrey is standing behind it. The time is obviously right, and I would have made a terrible movie of that book. I remember every beat of the pass that I got from my boss. It was so incredibly, organically frustrating to my whole being to be told no and it was vital to me to keep a project alive if I believed in it. That’s the major difference between being a studio executive and being a producer.

FNB: Are you missing anything from infrastructure that the studio would give you?
RH: Yes, I miss a lot. It was an unbelievable 10 years of meeting everybody, and knowing everything that was happening. It was like your best year of high school, if you had one, spread out over 10 years or 12 years in my case and I was very happy that I did it. There was no other way to get the education and the learning that went on was very tangible, but at the end of the day I could not possibly do it again.

When I left I knew I couldn’t do it for another hour. My dear boss Elaine Goldsmith completely understood. I never forget her saying to me, “How did you do this for so long? As emotionally difficult being an agent in Hollywood is, this is harder.”

FNB: If there were a student or young industry professional looking to be a producer, either independently or not, would you recommend spending time in the studio system?
RH: I would say I would recommend either a job at an agency or a TV company or a studio. I think you have to go inside. That was a hundred percent the way I talked about when I went after my first job. A very specific story was when I had the rights to ‘Analyze This’ and got totally screwed. I was young and believe I had a good instinct on that but in that same year I saw Cary Woods set up ‘Gummo’ at New Line, a Harmony Korine movie that was utterly un-commercial whereas ‘Analyze This’ was clearly commercial. And I thought that there’s something clearly going on in that room that I need to learn. How people buy and people sell. I always thought I was going inside and I was going to come out and use the information and share the information with the other independent producers I was working with.

FNB: What was the first film you worked on after transitioning back to being a producer?
RH: The first feature I set-up as a producer was “Moneyball” at Sony. I had read the book, and I thought instantly that it was a movie. I was sure that Tom Hanks or somebody owned the rights but I called the agent and he said, “I had no luck with it, Rachael. If you have an angle, by all means the field is clear. If something changes I’ll let you know, but feel free to run with it.” And I am eternally grateful to him and Michael Lewis for that. We found a writer and put together a pitch, which now sounds sort of typical but at that time it was a pretty rich time for the movie industry and basically [a project] was [either] a hot manuscript or it wasn’t and that was just the way the industry worked. And with ‘Moneyball’ I knew a lot of the big male producers at the time had loved the book and had it on their night tables but they didn’t think it was a movie.

FNB: Let’s talk about “Grey Gardens.” How did it come about?
RH: It came about for me many years ago. My mother raised me on the movie, she showed it to me and I had seen it dozens of times and memorized it. When I went indie, it was on a list of ideas that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with. I had been a theater producer before I started being a studio executive (which is how I found “Analyze This,” because I was working with Kenny Lonergan). In the back of my mind I thought that Grey Gardens would make a very good stage play. This was separate from the musical; I didn’t know anything about that. I called Al Maysles to see if the rights were available, and they were. We started to talk and I said I think I want to do a narrative film based on your film but it might be a play, I’m not a hundred percent sure, I’d just like to talk to some writers about it. As we were hugging each other and saying good bye I said, “Isn’t it remarkable that no one ever made a movie of ‘Grey Gardens’ before?” and he said, “It’s amazing that you’re doing it ’cause there are these Hollywood people doing a movie right now too.” I did the research and I found out that there was this man Michael Sucsy who’d written a film on spec based on Edie’s letters and her journals but not on the documentary. So we met and we decided to work together.

FNB: Was this the first film that went to production?
RH: Before “Grey Gardens” there were a few other movies. I set up development deals and I produced a film that started when I was at Revolution, one of them was “Samantha, An American Girl Holiday.” And that was a great experience because pretty soon after I went indie, I was on set. And it was absolutely great to go from being in an office for a decade to actually be producing and flexing the creative muscles. Then I made a documentary for TV called “Final Cut,” actually both of these were for TV. This was based on the Stephen Bach book. It’s about being an executive on a project that’s a debacle, “Heaven’s Gate.” And I think I put a lot into that also, about my experience. Have you ever read it?

FNB: I haven’t
RH: I think it’s the best book about being an executive.

FNB: To talk a little about technology in the industry… Going on set, did you use anything new you thought was interesting?
RH: One of the great advances I found, if you’re my kind of producer, is a very basic program now, called Castit where if you’re in different places and you want to talk about an actor, you can all stream the audition of this unknown person that you have no take on otherwise and you can all sit and talk about it  – and that was the very first shift for me and by the time I was on my next movie, absolutely everybody used it but it was a novelty on the first one.

FNB: Did you use digital dailies at all, which is kind of a similar platform for the daily footage?

RH: I’d done that but I’ve done both. Like even recently on “Grey Gardens” we still used DVDs. But I’m not sure this is what you mean but to speak more to my strengths which is finding the original idea and then moving it to script, is Franklin Leonard’s aggregate, The Black List. I would say that is one of the biggest shifts.

It speaks to the reason of why I left Revolution. I wanted to make “Sideways” there. I had done “About Schmidt” at  New Line and it was unbearable to me to not be working with Alexander Payne. I thought that “Sideways” was going to wonderful movie, particularly for Revolution because they wanted guy movies and talent. So I had some confidence in that area. But I had no document that I could use that I could point to and say, see? I was right. Nothing existed like that and I love it. Its absurd because its highly subjective, but those people that vote are like us, like me, and I related to them far more then their bosses. And they are the people that used to never have a voice. They’d get shut down in a meeting, fired, or the company would close and would never have a the chance to say, “Hey, I wanted to make that.”

FNB: Did you see The Brown List?
RH: That’s is not as trustworthy for a variety of reasons. A friend, who like me was an executive and is now an indie producer, turned up on the Brown List with one negative vote. He was thrilled. He said, “I’m still in the business. Somebody hates me. I’m still in the business”

Tags: About Schmidt, Al Maysles, Alexander Payne, Analyze This, Cary Woods, Elaine Goldsmith, Final Cut, Fine Line, Franklin Leonard, Grey Gardens, Gumo, Harmony Korine, Heaven's Gate, Innovators, Kenny Lonergan, Michael Sucsy, Moneyball, New Line, rachael horovitz, Revolution Studios, Samantha: An American Girl, Sony, The Black List, The Brown List
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