Post by Naj on Aug 22, 2007 8:07:42 GMT -5
Industry Insider
On the Ropes
With 'Resurrecting the Champ,' former critic Rod Lurie scores a knockout.
August 21, 2007
By Jenelle Riley
Many artists mix politics and entertainment, but few do it as well as Rod Lurie. In his feature directorial debut, the 1999 drama Deterrence, which he also wrote, he focused on a U.S. president (Kevin Pollak) who faces the dilemma of launching a nuclear attack on Iraq. Lurie has twice tackled the idea of a woman in the White House -- in the 2000 film The Contender it was Joan Allen as a potential vice president, and in the 2005 TV series Commander in Chief it was Geena Davis as the titular character. And in the underrated 2001 flick The Last Castle, Lurie examined the true nature of honor from inside a military prison.
His latest film as director -- his first feature in six years -- is Resurrecting the Champ, the tale of an ambitious but unremarkable journalist (Josh Hartnett) who latches on to the story of a lifetime when he comes across a former boxing great (Samuel L. Jackson) who now wanders the streets of Denver, homeless. Although Champ is set outside the power rooms of Washington, D.C., that one usually associates with the filmmaker, it still tackles familiar themes for Lurie, including the question of what makes a genuine hero.
If Lurie is drawn to tales of truth, justice, and the American way, it may be because the West Point grad and former Army officer began his entertainment career as a journalist. A film critic and contributing editor for Los Angeles Magazine from 1990 to 1995, Lurie authored the 1995 true-crime book Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and also hosted a popular radio show on KABC in Los Angeles. It was on this program that he began to make his name in Hollywood, in a most unique way. Lurie bet Martin Landau, Mel Gibson, James Cameron, and other notable film artists early on that they would take home awards Oscar night. If they lost, he would dedicate a full hour on his show to how they were robbed. If they won, they had to thank Lurie in their Oscar speeches. They were victorious, and they did thank him. (Billy Bob Thornton and Anthony Minghella took the bet but forgot to pay up when they went to accept their statues.)
But don't think Lurie viewed this career as just a stop on his way to conquering Hollywood. "Journalism is not a steppingstone," he notes. "It's its own wonderful art. To be honest, if I could have stayed a journalist, I think I probably would have. I loved it so much; it was the joy of my life. But I don't know that I was very good at it. I'd write a review or a story and think I was being clever, and then I'd read something by Manohla Dargis or Kenneth Turan, and they were such good writers -- I couldn't compete with them. I had to come to terms with the fact that I would never have a shot at being one of the best."
Lurie also didn't rely on the connections he'd made as a journalist to open doors in the business. "Being a critic is actually the anti-steppingstone," he warns. "No critic on a regular basis ever became a director, because we piss so many people off. I didn't build relationships; I destroyed them." Indeed, Lurie ruffled a few feathers. He was banned from screenings of Warner Bros. films for referring to Danny DeVito as "a testicle with arms." He went to a meeting at CAA and was escorted out by security once they realized who he was. He met with one actor for a role in The Contender who said to him, "I just wanted to meet you so I could tell you to go @#@# yourself. I remember everything you ever wrote about me." Lurie can laugh about such events now. "The bad news about being a critic turned filmmaker is that you're on record about everything," he says. "On the other hand, if you said good things, they know you're not just blowing smoke up their butt. When I met her, I told Joan Allen, 'I think you're the best actress in the world.' She said, 'I know.' "
Ladies' Man
As it turns out, Lurie's break in Hollywood was with a short film called 4 Second Delay that he shot in 1998 after casting it through Back Stage. In the film, journalist Bob Woodward -- famous for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal -- appears on a radio show, which prompts a listener to take hostages and demand that Woodward reveal the identity of Deep Throat. Journalism, politics, and radio: Clearly Lurie was playing to his strengths, and the film won a special jury prize at the Deauville Film Festival. It also opened the door for him to write and direct Deterrence. It was only when he got the green light for The Contender that Lurie ended his radio show, and in effect, his career in journalism.
The director urges potential filmmakers to follow his lead. "If you're a director and you have a few thousand dollars and enough money to buy an ad in Back Stage, you have the opportunity to showcase yourself," he says. "And if you're an actor, it's not a bad idea to get in the mix of making those short films. You need to form relationships with these directors, as well."
For example, Lurie has cast Kristen Shaw, the female lead in 4 Second Delay, in all his films and series. He also uses Cold Case star Kathryn Morris -- whom he calls his "muse" -- in every project, ever since he met her through a Back Stage ad. "We didn't make the film, but we made a vow to each other that I would offer her everything I do, and she has to thank me when she wins her first Oscar," Lurie says. "She is one of the great technically gifted actresses working today."
Lurie has a knack for writing great roles for women in a time when such parts are scarce: Witness Allen's Oscar-nominated turn in The Contender and Davis' Golden Globe-winning role on Commander in Chief. He often writes with specific actors in mind, as he did for Allen. "After I cast her, I started to dream about her in the role," he recalls. "So many of the scenes are exactly what were in my dreams."
Word Games
Lurie has been wanting to make Resurrecting the Champ since he read the 1997 Los Angeles Times Magazine story upon which the film is based. "It was the first project I voraciously chased," he says. "And I
didn't get it." Producer Mike Medavoy instead had a series of writers -- including credited screenwriters Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett -- work on the script over the years. It wasn't until Lurie had a couple of films under his belt that the project came back to him.
One of the reasons Lurie is glad it took a while is the casting of Hartnett, who 10 years ago was far too young to play the journalist and father at the center of the story. A fan of the actor's work in The Virgin Suicides and Lucky Number Slevin, Lurie didn't audition Hartnett for the part. "Sitting and meeting with him convinced me he was right for this," Lurie explains. "He's so good-looking, there's a tendency to overlook what he might actually be able to bring to a role. But he was intensely interested in getting this movie right. We spent weeks on the phone and meeting to talk about what it meant to be a journalist and what it meant to be a father. To a certain degree, his director was also his technical adviser."
Though Lurie may no longer be a journalist, he continues to examine the need for integrity in the printed word in his films -- first in Resurrecting the Champ and next in Nothing but the Truth, starring Kate Beckinsale as a reporter protecting a source. But how does the former critic feel about reviews of his projects? "Sometimes journalists give me a good screwing," he admits. "The only time it hurts is when you know they're right."
BIO BRIEF
- His father is political cartoonist Ranan Lurie
- Created two shows for ABC: Line of Fire, about the relations between FBI agents and the mob, and Commander in Chief, in which he was replaced as showrunner after two episodes
- Named the presidents in Commander in Chief after the stars of the film The Contender, which some view as a prototype for the show. President Teddy Bridges was named after Jeff Bridges, Vice President Mackenzie Allen (who becomes president in the first episode) was named after Joan Allen. The name of Mackenzie's husband? Rod
- Wrote and directed a pilot called I'm Paige Wilson, set in Washington, D.C., that was not picked up for the fall. "Unfortunately, I did a political drama for the CW," he notes. "It's sort of like doing a John Stamos show for BET: It's just never going to happen."
Article
On the Ropes
With 'Resurrecting the Champ,' former critic Rod Lurie scores a knockout.
August 21, 2007
By Jenelle Riley
Many artists mix politics and entertainment, but few do it as well as Rod Lurie. In his feature directorial debut, the 1999 drama Deterrence, which he also wrote, he focused on a U.S. president (Kevin Pollak) who faces the dilemma of launching a nuclear attack on Iraq. Lurie has twice tackled the idea of a woman in the White House -- in the 2000 film The Contender it was Joan Allen as a potential vice president, and in the 2005 TV series Commander in Chief it was Geena Davis as the titular character. And in the underrated 2001 flick The Last Castle, Lurie examined the true nature of honor from inside a military prison.
His latest film as director -- his first feature in six years -- is Resurrecting the Champ, the tale of an ambitious but unremarkable journalist (Josh Hartnett) who latches on to the story of a lifetime when he comes across a former boxing great (Samuel L. Jackson) who now wanders the streets of Denver, homeless. Although Champ is set outside the power rooms of Washington, D.C., that one usually associates with the filmmaker, it still tackles familiar themes for Lurie, including the question of what makes a genuine hero.
If Lurie is drawn to tales of truth, justice, and the American way, it may be because the West Point grad and former Army officer began his entertainment career as a journalist. A film critic and contributing editor for Los Angeles Magazine from 1990 to 1995, Lurie authored the 1995 true-crime book Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and also hosted a popular radio show on KABC in Los Angeles. It was on this program that he began to make his name in Hollywood, in a most unique way. Lurie bet Martin Landau, Mel Gibson, James Cameron, and other notable film artists early on that they would take home awards Oscar night. If they lost, he would dedicate a full hour on his show to how they were robbed. If they won, they had to thank Lurie in their Oscar speeches. They were victorious, and they did thank him. (Billy Bob Thornton and Anthony Minghella took the bet but forgot to pay up when they went to accept their statues.)
But don't think Lurie viewed this career as just a stop on his way to conquering Hollywood. "Journalism is not a steppingstone," he notes. "It's its own wonderful art. To be honest, if I could have stayed a journalist, I think I probably would have. I loved it so much; it was the joy of my life. But I don't know that I was very good at it. I'd write a review or a story and think I was being clever, and then I'd read something by Manohla Dargis or Kenneth Turan, and they were such good writers -- I couldn't compete with them. I had to come to terms with the fact that I would never have a shot at being one of the best."
Lurie also didn't rely on the connections he'd made as a journalist to open doors in the business. "Being a critic is actually the anti-steppingstone," he warns. "No critic on a regular basis ever became a director, because we piss so many people off. I didn't build relationships; I destroyed them." Indeed, Lurie ruffled a few feathers. He was banned from screenings of Warner Bros. films for referring to Danny DeVito as "a testicle with arms." He went to a meeting at CAA and was escorted out by security once they realized who he was. He met with one actor for a role in The Contender who said to him, "I just wanted to meet you so I could tell you to go @#@# yourself. I remember everything you ever wrote about me." Lurie can laugh about such events now. "The bad news about being a critic turned filmmaker is that you're on record about everything," he says. "On the other hand, if you said good things, they know you're not just blowing smoke up their butt. When I met her, I told Joan Allen, 'I think you're the best actress in the world.' She said, 'I know.' "
Ladies' Man
As it turns out, Lurie's break in Hollywood was with a short film called 4 Second Delay that he shot in 1998 after casting it through Back Stage. In the film, journalist Bob Woodward -- famous for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal -- appears on a radio show, which prompts a listener to take hostages and demand that Woodward reveal the identity of Deep Throat. Journalism, politics, and radio: Clearly Lurie was playing to his strengths, and the film won a special jury prize at the Deauville Film Festival. It also opened the door for him to write and direct Deterrence. It was only when he got the green light for The Contender that Lurie ended his radio show, and in effect, his career in journalism.
The director urges potential filmmakers to follow his lead. "If you're a director and you have a few thousand dollars and enough money to buy an ad in Back Stage, you have the opportunity to showcase yourself," he says. "And if you're an actor, it's not a bad idea to get in the mix of making those short films. You need to form relationships with these directors, as well."
For example, Lurie has cast Kristen Shaw, the female lead in 4 Second Delay, in all his films and series. He also uses Cold Case star Kathryn Morris -- whom he calls his "muse" -- in every project, ever since he met her through a Back Stage ad. "We didn't make the film, but we made a vow to each other that I would offer her everything I do, and she has to thank me when she wins her first Oscar," Lurie says. "She is one of the great technically gifted actresses working today."
Lurie has a knack for writing great roles for women in a time when such parts are scarce: Witness Allen's Oscar-nominated turn in The Contender and Davis' Golden Globe-winning role on Commander in Chief. He often writes with specific actors in mind, as he did for Allen. "After I cast her, I started to dream about her in the role," he recalls. "So many of the scenes are exactly what were in my dreams."
Word Games
Lurie has been wanting to make Resurrecting the Champ since he read the 1997 Los Angeles Times Magazine story upon which the film is based. "It was the first project I voraciously chased," he says. "And I
didn't get it." Producer Mike Medavoy instead had a series of writers -- including credited screenwriters Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett -- work on the script over the years. It wasn't until Lurie had a couple of films under his belt that the project came back to him.
One of the reasons Lurie is glad it took a while is the casting of Hartnett, who 10 years ago was far too young to play the journalist and father at the center of the story. A fan of the actor's work in The Virgin Suicides and Lucky Number Slevin, Lurie didn't audition Hartnett for the part. "Sitting and meeting with him convinced me he was right for this," Lurie explains. "He's so good-looking, there's a tendency to overlook what he might actually be able to bring to a role. But he was intensely interested in getting this movie right. We spent weeks on the phone and meeting to talk about what it meant to be a journalist and what it meant to be a father. To a certain degree, his director was also his technical adviser."
Though Lurie may no longer be a journalist, he continues to examine the need for integrity in the printed word in his films -- first in Resurrecting the Champ and next in Nothing but the Truth, starring Kate Beckinsale as a reporter protecting a source. But how does the former critic feel about reviews of his projects? "Sometimes journalists give me a good screwing," he admits. "The only time it hurts is when you know they're right."
BIO BRIEF
- His father is political cartoonist Ranan Lurie
- Created two shows for ABC: Line of Fire, about the relations between FBI agents and the mob, and Commander in Chief, in which he was replaced as showrunner after two episodes
- Named the presidents in Commander in Chief after the stars of the film The Contender, which some view as a prototype for the show. President Teddy Bridges was named after Jeff Bridges, Vice President Mackenzie Allen (who becomes president in the first episode) was named after Joan Allen. The name of Mackenzie's husband? Rod
- Wrote and directed a pilot called I'm Paige Wilson, set in Washington, D.C., that was not picked up for the fall. "Unfortunately, I did a political drama for the CW," he notes. "It's sort of like doing a John Stamos show for BET: It's just never going to happen."
Article
Thanks Naj for the article.. 
I hope KM wins a Oscar 
