Down and Dirty Pictures, page 75
“This is so wonderful” and following: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“They thought it”: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.
“It got a bad”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“We have to make changes” and following: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.
“This film’s intended”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“God, that’s pretentious”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“Harvey went mad”: Betsy Sharkey, “The Brothers Miramax: Harvey and Bob,” New York Times, “Arts and Leisure,” 7/24/94.
“I’m taking the film away” and following: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.
“withheld the last payment”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“He got pretty nasty”: Howard Feinstein, AI, 10/10/03.
“No one should be surprised”: Woolley, AI, 2/26/02.
“Are we gonna” and following: Burkin, AI, 4/29/02.
CHAPTER 3: RISKY BUSINESS
Epigraph: Bernard, AI, 11/15/99.
“We have to keep up” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“We were tired”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“I would come in”: Ray, AI, 12/16/98.
“Why ties?”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.
“If you locked Bingham up”: Pierson, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes, 90.
“I always wanted us”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.
“Jeff is an extraordinary” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“We were not going to make”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“I was never an entrepreneur”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“Amir was the first guy”: Michael Barker, AI, 11/15/99.
“I always considered Amir”: Bart Walker, AI, 12/7/00.
“pathological liar”: Deutchman, AI, 10/4/99.
“Basically, everybody who comes in contact”: John Shestack, AI, 12/11/00.
“the money that we”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“When we called Cinecom’s accountant”: Ismail Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.
“I could kill you”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“It’s the filmmakers’ money”: Merchant, AI, 7/9/01.
“We stopped making films”: Ivory, AI, 7/9/01.
“I don’t remember”: Amir Malin, AI, 10/22/03.
“I would never”: Walker, AI, 10/22/03.
“All those years”: Richard Abramowitz, AI, 2/14/01.
“I think what you guys” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“Let’s fly to New York”: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“The tapes are what did it” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“You create evening social activity” and following: Urman, AI, 10/31/01.
“I’d love to work”: Confidential source.
“I’m surrounded by people”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”
“Alie, I just can’t” and following: Brantley, AI, 10/18/99.
“It was an experiment.”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“The Italian films in particular”: Bernardo Bertolucci, AI, 5/26/03.
“He owes us at least”: Kees Kasander, e-mail, 6/6/03.
“modest success”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“I look like a fuckin’ ”: Earnhart, AI, 5/21/02.
“Eve will smell this”: Confidential source.
“You better be here” and following: Confidential source.
“We went out to one”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“Miramax was maybe” and following: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/01.
“New Line was cleaning up”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/01.
“People take for granted”: Norton, AI, 8/8/02.
“It was initially almost impossible”: Pollack, AI, 6/10/02.
“the place where films”: Estes, AI, 10/29/99.
“contains humiliation, abuse”: John Lyttle, Independent, 3/1/91.
“AIDS was a life and death” and following: Todd Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.
“The regional filmmaker”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.
“I didn’t grow up” and following: Christine Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.
“They were so sanctimonious” and following: Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.
“That movie was an epiphany”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“We watched that movie”: Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.
“Todd was this” and following: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“That’s when Ang” and following: Hope, AI, 10/15/03.
“Christine and I would go”: Haynes, AI, 3/23/02.
“With great reviews”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“wasn’t personally motivated”: Vachon, AI, 10/20/00.
“Roger Ebert met Todd”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“Right after Truth or Dare”: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.
“We proceeded to try”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.
“Congratulations” and following: Deutchman, AI, 3/10/00.
“Let’s compete against”: Claudia Eller, “What About Bob?” Los Angeles Times, 4/6/01.
“It was a profitable film”: Rasmussen, AI, 3/31/01.
“After incurring”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“What they were then”: Mark Lipsky, AI, 11/15/99.
“The smarter filmmakers”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.
“Here’s a million dollars back”: Bobby Newmyer, AI, 2/18/99.
“In a deal for an acquisition”: Steinberg, AI, 2/21/00.
“We inserted”: Lichter, AI, 10/2/98.
“The reasons”: Bobby Newmyer, AI, 2/18/99.
“We don’t want”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.
“Newmyer signed a deal”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“David, you closed” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00, and confidential source.
“Harvey threatened”: Schmidt, AI, 3/27/01.
“There was a constant”: Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.
“They couldn’t accept the idea”: Confidential source.
“Like all IPOs”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.
“The fact that:” Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.
“I couldn’t believe it”: Jami Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies (New York: Harper Perennial, 1995), 215.
“People would gush”: Anders, AI, 6/14/94.
“Obviously, I think Park City”: John Anderson, Sundancing (New York: Avon, 2000), 1.
“When you had movies”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“It was becoming clear”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.
“It was an insane”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“Everybody liked Allison” and following: Ray Price, AI, 12/9/00.
“She’s a human mood ring”: Peter Biskind, “Four Rooms,” Premiere, 12/95.
“Critics are harder”: Ray Price, AI, 12/9/00.
“Everybody was freaked out”: Linde, AI, 11/16/99.
“Going in, I didn’t realize”: Richard Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.
“the Faye Dunaway screening” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“The Vietnam War”: Tarantino, AI, 6/10/94.
“I’d gone to the theater”: Deseret News Archives, 12/26/96.
“We were always trying”: Kathy Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.
“It changed my life” and following: Alexandre Rockwell, AI, 7/13/95.
“You didn’t want to go”: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 220.
CHAPTER 4: THE BUYING GAME
Epigraph: Lisa Gubernick, “We Don’t Want to Be Walt Disney,” Forbes, 10/16/89.
“People like Michael Barker”: Bernard, AI, 11/15/99.
“He was kind”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“If Amir told me”: Ray, AI, 3/19/01.
“It was nouveau” and following: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“When Amir came”: Abramowitz, AI, 2/14/01.
“There was plenty”: Deutchman, AI, 10/4/99.
“What you did to people” and following: Ray, AI, 3/2/01.
“I never had a negative” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“Just two guys released”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“Who’s the closer?”: Schmidt, AI, 7/30/03.
“They were penurious” and following: Jeff Lipsky, AI, 10/4/99.
“October was the kinder”: Confidential source.
“It would have been”: Schmidt, AI, 6/9/00.
“The guy was really”: Ray, AI, 2/15/01.
“It was frustrating”: Ray, 2/15/01.
“I was the dumb kid”: Tarantino, AI, 4/9/94.
“I didn’t go to film school”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“Before video, I would” and following: Roger Avary, AI, 5/2/02.
“It just seemed as an actor”: Tarantino, AI, 4/9/94.
“We were going to be”: Tarantino, AI, 4/4/94.
“By this time”: Avary, AI, 5/2/02.
“I was weeping by the end of it”: Roger Avary, AI, 5/2/02.
“Every six months”: Tarantino, AI, 6/10/94.
“Monte dropped the script” and following: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.
“Live was going to commit”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.
“I thought that Sundance” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“the nightmare that looms”: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”
“It had to be personal”: Barbara Maltby, AI, 6/14/03.
“There were a series” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 4/22/99.
“When Redford gets”: Annick Smith, AI, nd.
“Redford works”: Richard Pearce, AI, nd.
“There’s nothing sinister”: Annick Smith, AI, nd.
“I had a rigid”: Klein, AI, nd.
“This issue has been” and following: Redford, AI, 11/13/90.
“We’re sorry, but TriStar”: Confidential sources.
“It’s a call I would have made”: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”
“Well, if I’d known”: Confidential source.
“Look, I know that” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 4/22/99.
“It’s not my kind of movie”: Confidential source.
“I’m gonna take my name off” and following: Soderbergh, AI, 5/2/02.
“It took so long” and following: Collins, “The Funk of Steven Soderbergh.”
“They were making us” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“Harvey said to me”: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.
“I was afraid” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“I didn’t make it for your wife!”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“I thought you hated the movie” Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 161.
“What?” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03; and Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 160.
“It’s a problem”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03; Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02; and Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 164.
“I didn’t have to cut” and following: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“When Reservoir Dogs came out”: Linde, AI, 11/16/99.
“Miramax had fucked”: Tarantino, AI, 4/30/03.
“I thought they”: Lawrence Bender, AI, 2/3/03.
“That’s pretty fucking cool”: Tarantino, AI, 4/4/94.
“There wasn’t a day”: Vossler, AI, 7/11/94.
“Also, she shouldn’t be a stickler”: Margie Rochlin, “Quentin Tarantino, Film-maker: Interview,” Playboy, 11/94.
“Oh yeah, he wrote to Miramax”: Anders, AI, 11/17/98.
“I’m thinking of doing” and following: Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, 218; AI, 11/15/99.
“has lost its edge”: John Even Frook, “Miramax Paradiso,” Variety, 9/21/92.
“Creditors were knocking down” and following: Tusk, AI, 1/31/00.
“Bob would come around”: Burkin, AI, 4/29/02.
“I used to go into”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”
“Harvey was up shit’s creek.”: John Ptak, AI, 10/21/99.
“They’re big on raiding” and following: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.
“They were the kings” and following: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.
“Harvey, if that’s the case”: Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 274.
“Miramax was the happiest”: Ptak, AI, 10/21/99.
“Without The Crying Game”: Schmidt, AI, 5/25/00.
“What do you think if Dil” and following: Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 7.
“he’d do it if I cast”: Neil Jordan, AI, 5/6/03.
“This is stupid.” and following: Woolley, AI, 4/16/03; Finney, The Egos Have Landed, 13.
“It never occurred to anyone”: Lechner, AI, 5/31/01.
“Why’s that?”: Woolley, AI, nd.
“Is there any”: Confidential source.
“I could have put Harvey”: Deutchman, AI, 9/17/99.
“I was nervous”: Jordan, AI, 5/6/03.
“Neil was very bruised” and following: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.
“What happens in”: Confidential source.
“It was”: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.
“We were struggling” and following: Confidential source.
“We never forced”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“The reason we wanted”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“We’re gonna spend” and following: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 7/18/02.
“We’re not gonna open”: Confidential source.
“Bob was just aggressive”: Simon Perry, AI, 3/5/02.
“He was always talking”: Confidential source.
“That was a big”: Nik Powell, AI, 2/23/02.
“C’mon guys” and following: Confidential source.
“I kept away”: Woolley, AI, 2/27/02.
“Our deal was never”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 11/11/03.
“It was kicking around”: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.
“Investing a million”: Jeffrey Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.
“These guys don’t”: Ptak, AI, 10/23/99.
“Hey, call Harvey Weinstein” and following: Confidential source.
“We said, ‘Hey”: Chris McGurk, AI, 5/1/01.
“Michael did not want”: Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.
“We’d had a couple”: McGurk, AI, 5/1/01.
“The handwriting was”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.
“You had a situation”: McGurk, AI, 8/27/01.
“You’re gonna pay ’em” and following: Katzenberg, AI, 5/23/02.
“People were calling me”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.
“Wait, we don’t” and following: Rob Moore, AI, 5/1/00.
“I said to Wells”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 8/9/02.
“Eisner was so concerned”: Joe Roth, AI, 5/1/00.
“I finally found someone”: Confidential source.
“What they do”: Schmidt, AI, 8/7/03.
“Michael Eisner can’t make me”: Ken Auletta, “Beauty and the Beast,” New Yorker, 12/16/02.
“When you see Bob or Harvey”: Hirschberg, “The Mad Passion of Harvey and Bob.”
“How many films has Miramax” and following: Ptak, AI, 2/9/99.
“The film we admired so much”: Louis Malle, interviewed by James Greenberg, c. 1994, unpublished.
CHAPTER 5: HE’S GOTTA HAVE IT
Epigraph: Smith, AI, 2/15/00.
“That was a big deal”: Hope, AI, 6/10/01.
“It was that Go Fish” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“In the acquisition”: Ray, AI, 3/8/01.
“When Miramax got” and following: Bowles, AI, 6/7/00.
“There was a great suspicion”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.
“Hong Kong?”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“The motto at Miramax”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.
“After a whole day”: Amy Israel, AI, 5/1/01.
“Miramax could afford”: McGurk, AI, 8/27/01.
“My attitude was”: Foley, AI, 7/13/01.
“Harvey has to see it” and following: Confidential source.
“after telling everybody”: Estes, 10/29/99.
“The Miramax people went nuts” and following: Urman, AI, 10/31/01.
“scene in The Good”: redacted from David Carr, “The Emperor Miramaximus,” New York, 11/26/01.
“worked. It really dried up” and following: Bowles, AI, 3/24/00.
“As the risks became greater”: Grillo, AI, 4/10/01.
“One of the things”: Ethan Hawke, AI, 10/28/02.
“Shaye said”: David O. Russell, AI, 8/30/01.
“I felt like I’d missed”: Russell, AI, 10/25/02.
“I made a movie that said”: Russell, AI, 10/25/02.
“Seeing that movie”: Kevin Smith, Pierson, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes, 173–74; AI, 12/18/01.
“This is not a Disney movie”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“The perception was that”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“I lost all of Martin Lawrence’s business”: Harvey Weinstein, AI, 6/8/02.
“That’s a really hateful” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.
“Miramax was the premier” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.
“I’m amazed that nobody” and following: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“Great fuckin’ movie”: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.
“Mr. Weinstein, it’s an honor”: Tusk, AI, 2/3/00.
“We’d read a lot” and following: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01.
“I had no interest”: Kevin Smith, AI, 12/18/01; Frontline documentary, 5/01.
“You’d never be able”: Vachon, AI, 10/16/00.
“No matter how grounded”: Hope, AI, 6/10/01.
“It felt like movies”: Manne, AI, 10/28/01.
“The attendance was huge”: Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.
“That ’94 festival”: Gilmore, AI, 3/9/01.
“the competition was drawing Hollywood”: Schulman, AI, 4/25/02.
“Gary Beer was really successful”: Lory Smith, AI, 4/8/99.
“You have independent films”: Payne, AI, 2/21/00.
“a zoo, a circus”: Ray, AI, 12/16/98.
“In the beginning”: Lichter, AI, 10/2/98.
“What a great idea that was” and following: Avary, AI, 5/2/02.
“We could have made” and following: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.
“too demented”: Rick Hess, AI, 10/23/98.
“The worst-case scenario”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.
“Please, just read it” and following: Gladstein, AI, 6/4/02.
“As opposed to many other”: Tarantino, AI, 1/26/94.
“Everyone had said”: Hess, AI, 10/23/98.
“Harvey’s always wanted”: Safford, AI, 9/29/98.
“Harvey’s power base”: Marcy Granata, AI, 12/16/02.
