Monday, March 26, 1990
The Battalion
Page 5
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Texas A&M Waterski Club member Darrell Ruby leaves a
sheet of spray in his wake as he slaloms around a buoy during
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
the 15th Annual Polar Bear Waterski Tournament at Century
Lake Saturday. The A&M women’s team placed third overall.
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Major studios shunned Oscar favorites
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mov-
“Born on the Fourth of July” anci
Driving Miss Daisy,” both shunned
y the major Hollywood studios, are
I Tie favorites to win Oscars when the
i-uuii industI 7 honors its own Mon-
■aiiHarlfry m R lu -
The 62nd Academy Awards ex-
|avaganza at the Los Angeles Music
enter will begin on ABC at 8 p.m.
rith Billy Crystal as master of cere-
lonies.
The contenders for the acting
»nze include 80-year-old Jessica
randy and Marlon Brando, 65, who
wth achieved fame 40 years ago
hen they co-starred on Broadway
|i “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Miss Tandy, the cranky dowager
i “Driving Miss Daisy,” is deemed
le favorite in a difficult-to-predict
lace for best actress.
Michelle Pfeiffer, the sexy singer
f “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” is
Iso highly touted,
Leading the race for best actor are
om Cruise, the disabled veteran of
Born on the Fourth of July,” and
aniel Day-Lewis, the cerebral palsy
ictini of "My Left Foot.”’
Brando was nominated for best
Supporting actor for his role as the
■beral South African lawyer in “A
■)ry White Season.”
I Among the stars who will present
■he awards are Warren Beatty, Jes-
lica Lange, Jack Lemmon (from
[Moscow), Jack Nicholson, Steve
lartin, Rachel Ward and Bryan
rown (from Sydney), and last year’s
ZZ Bctin winners Jodie Foster, Geena
"yavis and Kevin Kline.
All five nominees for best picture
if 1989 were movies that all of the
estsfni na j or Hollywood studios spurned as
icing too special to attract a wide au-
:rowd f (lienee. For instance, “Driving Miss
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Daisy.”
“It was turned down by all the ma
jor companies,” reports Richard Za-
nuck, who produced the film with
his wife, Lili.
“Then we went to some of the mi
nor players among the companies.
No one thought it was commercial.
The consensus was that it would be a
nice movie with good reviews, but it
couldn’t attract a wide audience.
“They also felt that it needed a
stronger cast. By that time we Fiad
locked in Jessica Tandy and Morgan
Freeman on a pay-or-play basis
(meaning they would have to be paid
whether they appeared or not).
“Every agent turned it down, every
studio turned it down.”
Schulman stuck to his st6ry about
an English teacher who inspires his
students to creative thinking with
bursts of poetry.
He finally interested producer
Steven Haft who took the project to
Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, where
the script previously had been re
jected.
“Dead Poets Society” ended up
with a $94-million gross in the
United States and Canada.
Director-writer Phil Alden Robin
son devoted six years to bringing
“Field of Dreams” to the screen. He
“But ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ and the other nominees
have proven that audiences are hungry for material
that is not devoted to rapes, car crashes, murder and
blood.”
— Richard Zanuck
producer, “Driving Miss Daisy”
“They wanted a younger actress,
like Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine
or Jane Fonda, who could be aged.
But for a character that started the
film in her 70s and ended in her 90s,
that seemed impractical.”
The Zanucks solved the problem
by trimming the budget for the film
from $12.5 million to $7.5 million
and cutting 20 days from the pro
duction schedule.
“It took two years before I could
find anybody to consider ‘Dead Po
ets Society,’ ” says Tom Schulman,
who wrote the original screenplay.
first read W.P. Kinsella’s baseball
fantasy “Shoeless Joe” in 1982 and
tried to interest the studios.
“I was turned down at every stu
dio,” Robinson says.
Finally, in 1985 Robinson found a
taker. Lawrence Gordon, then head
of production at 20th Century Fox.
The script was developed at Fox,
but then Gordon left for indepen
dent producing and “Field of
Dreams” went into “turnaround,”
meaning it could be peddled to
other studios.
Gordon and his producer-brother
Charles took it to Tom Pollock at
Universal, who said yes even before
a star had been signed.
Costner learned about the script
and accepted immediately after
reading it. The “Field of Dreams”
domestic take — $63 million.
“Born on the Fourth of July”
holds the record among this year’s
best-picture nominees for length of
time in reaching the screen.
Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic wrote
the script, which is based on Kovic’s
Vietnam experiences, in 1977-78. In
1979, Stone was on the brink of di
recting the film with A1 Pacino as
star.
“Ten years later, Tom Cruise took
an interest in it, ‘Platoon’ was a suc
cess, and Universal Pictures, which
had originally killed the picture,
came back and financed it.”
Producer Noel Pearson didn’t
even canvass the major studios for
backing of “My Left Foot,” realizing
that a film about a cerebral palsy vic
tim would attract a chilly reaction
Slowly he accumulated enough
for the budget—“under $3 million,”
he says.
The same pattern of rejection of
Academy Award nominees by the
big studios has occurred increasingly
in recent years. Why?
“I think it’s the cost factor,” the
orizes Richard Zanuck.
“Even with smaller pictures, the
cost of advertising and prints can
amount to a major investment. The
studios naturally avoid projects that
they consider ‘dangerous’ or not in
the mainstream.
“But ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ and the
other nominees have proven that au
diences are hungry for material that
is not devoted to rapes, car crashes,
murder and blood.”
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Continued from page 4)
T he motivation behind the idea of
Irawing more publicity towards col-
ege-level rodeo eventually may ben-
jfit Bryan-College Station.
Altizer says that Bad Company is
tying to attract the attention not
inly of college rodeo fans, but of the
lollegiate Rodeo Association as well.
“Bad Company Rodeo is trying to
elp us bring the National Collegiate
lodeo Finals here to Bryan-College
station,” Texas A&M Rodeo Com-
nitee Chairman Blane Chapman
aid. “If we can host the finals here it
ivould be a great economic boost for
oth cities.”
The finals currently are held in
Sozman, Mont., and bids for hosting
his major event will be accepteci
sarlyin 1992.
Bad Company’s rodeo announcer
>yd Polharnus says Bryan-College
station has a lot to offer as far as res-
araunts, hotels and a spirited col-
ege atmosphere.
“The location of this area wiyliin
he state of Texas is just ideal,” Pol-
lanms said. “Not to mention its su-
roundings.”
Also helping out in the “new look”
of rodeo is Gretchen Polhemus, who
was Miss USA 1989.
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Bad Company asked Polhemus to
tdp promote the rodeo. She signed
allographs and talked to people in
“the stands
Polhemus says a rodeo cowboy is
ust as much an athlete as any other
Football, basketball or baseball
t pet® Player.
A lot of people think cowboys are
bunch of hicks or red-necks who
tumbled out of the back woods.”
Polhemus said
The truth is. both the cowboy
and the animals in rodeo are athletes
that share pain, frustration and
pride just as much as the next play
er
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The
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TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
The 1989-1990 Concert Season
Fifth Concert
Ttiesday March 27, 1990
8:00 p.m., Rudder Forum
The Mew Mexico
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Internationally known as one of the finest ensembles of its kind
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