Last
weekend I hosted a panel at the Santa Barbara Film Festival that
featured five producers whose films were Oscar best picture nominees. At
one point I asked everyone how many shooting days they had to make the
film. After everyone else answered, Graham King, the producer of “Hugo,”
got a big laugh, saying “I think our shooting schedule was longer than
everyone else’s put together. After 100 days, what are you going to do —
call an ambulance?”
When it comes to King’s investment in “Hugo,” it’s probably time for a
healthy dose of gallows humor. The Martin Scorsese-directed 3-D film is
a cinematic marvel, taking us on an amazing journey through 1930s Paris
back to the formative days of moviemaking. The critics swooned over the
film’s technical wizardry. The academy gave it 11 Oscar nominations,
the most of any film this year. If I had an Oscar ballot, it would get
my vote for best picture.
But the film has been a financial meltdown for King, a
bigger-than-life movie impresario who has either produced or helped
finance an impressive array of prestigious movie star-propelled films,
including “Ali,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,”
“The Tourist” and “Hugo.” King sold off some foreign territories with
“Hugo” but is otherwise on the hook for the rest of the film’s losses.
Originally budgeted at roughly $100 million, the movie spiraled out
of control during production. King puts the film’s cost at $156 million,
thanks to some tax rebates and additional British financing, but others
say the film’s budget ended up at $170 million. So far “Hugo” has only
taken in about $62 million domestically and last weekend it wasn’t on
the box-office top 10 list.
It’s been a sobering experience for King, an ebullient man who is
usually the life of the party. On an artistic level, King has much to
celebrate, having accomplished the rare feat of producing best picture
and animated feature (“Rango”) nominees in the same year. Yet when we
had lunch last week, King had the slightly shellshocked air of a stunt
pilot who’d barely survived a crash landing in a cornfield.
“I’ve completely changed my way of thinking about making movies,
maybe from hitting my head too hard a couple of times,” he told me. “Now
when I read a script, I think — what does the audience want to see? In
the past, I was only thinking about what I wanted to make. But I’m
changing my ways. I’m too old, too tired. I don’t want to live on the
edge anymore.”
Of course, living on the edge is what makes King, 50, such a
fascinating showbiz character. Born in London, he was a big Chelsea
soccer fan whose dad would take him in the middle of the night to a
local theater to watch the great Ali-Frazier fights. When he was 18 he
moved to Los Angeles to attend college, but instead took a job as a temp
at 20th Century Fox, where he ended up as an executive doing
international TV deals. By 2001 he’d been nicknamed “The Suicide King”
for investing in films that everyone figured were long-shot gambles,
like “Traffic” and “Gangs of New York.”
The bet King was really making was on his ability to build
relationships with star talent. King has made four films with Scorsese.
He’s made two films with Angelina Jolie, including her recent
directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” He also has a
production company with Johnny Depp, who costarred in “The Tourist,” was
the lead voice actor in “Rango” and is starring in the upcoming Tim
Burton film “Dark Shadows,” which King also produced. King has a Brad
Pitt film, “World War Z,” due out this fall and is prepping a second
film with Ben Affleck, who directed the King-produced film “The Town.”
In many ways, King is a throwback to men like Sam Spiegel and Joseph
E. Levine, mid-20th century producer titans who made Oscar-drenched
films like “On the Waterfront,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Lion in
Winter” and “The Graduate.” Like King, they were men of epic ambition
who often courted disaster when their films didn’t hit pay dirt. King
stands out even more today, especially since today’s studios have grown
wary of making $100-million films with costly A-list talent, preferring
to cultivate star-free superhero franchises.
When you don’t have studio backing, having talent on your side is
your best insurance policy, since the top stars are magnets for the
hottest scripts in town. King believes that his willingness to back his
stars’ passion projects will end up giving him access to more commercial
projects. Depp’s “Rum Diary,” which King produced, was a flop, but
their next film together, “Dark Shadows,” has the look of a big
moneymaker. King is also a regular patron of screenwriter John Logan,
who wrote “Hugo” and “Rango” and is now writing a film adaptation of the
“Jersey Boys” musical, which King is producing.
Still, “Hugo” is a thorn in his side.
“There’s no finger pointing — I’m the producer and I take the
responsibility,” he said glumly. “Budget wise, there just wasn’t enough
prep time and no one really realized how complicated doing a 3-D film
was going to be. I went through three line producers because no one knew
exactly what was going on. Do I still think it’s a masterpiece that
will be talked about in 20 years? Yes. But once the schedule started
getting out of whack, things just spiraled and spiraled and that’s when
the avalanche began.”
He laughs uneasily. “Let’s just say that it hasn’t been an easy few months for me — there’s been a lot of Ambien involved.”
King isn’t taking the hit alone. His partner is Tim Headington, a
Texas oilman who, according to Forbes, is worth $1.5 billion. Not long
after they first met, King told Headington, a longtime film buff, that
he should invest in a company, not individual films. Headington took the
advice and became King’s partner. “It’s a handshake deal,” says King.
“It’s been painful lately but he’s seen the change in my thinking about
making commercial movies.”
By the end of lunch, King almost began to sound like his old self,
touting his latest projects, which include a big-screen biopic of Queen
singer Freddie Mercury. “Being a good producer is all about
self-confidence,” he said. “When I’m on the set, I try to make sure that
everyone has a real faith, not just in the movie, but in themselves.
It’s a lot like being a good baseball manager or a soccer coach.
Sometimes the only thing that helps you handle adversity is believing in
yourself.”
Steve Felice, Dell
