DEEPER MEANING: Colin Farrell (left) and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman in Winter’s Tale.
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman focused on the film anew after his wife died of a heart attack
You might not peg the guy who wrote I, Robot and adapted The Da Vinci Code as a self-described “shameless romantic.” But then, when looking back on A Beautiful Mind, the movie that won him a screenplay Oscar, Akiva Goldsman remembers it as a “promise that love conquers all.”
So when Goldsman says that he likes to see the world as “a grown-up fairy tale where nothing is without purpose,” it makes perfect sense that 30 years ago, riding the New York subway, he cried like a baby while reading Mark Helprin’s novel Winter’s Tale.
A bighearted book that toggles between two centuries in a mythic New York City, Helprin’s story ponders the notions of enduring love and eternal destiny. It’s dense, complicated and magical, considered by some to be among the great American novels of the last half-century.
When Goldsman gained currency in Hollywood, he persuaded Warner Bros to option Helprin’s novel for him with the idea that he’d adapt and produce. But the book is a beast, and Goldsman found himself easily distracted by other projects, producing the Will Smith superhero comedy Hancock and writing, producing and directing episodes of Fringe.
“There’s something very literary and wondrous about the idea of misunderstood destiny and loss leading to a different kind of gain,” Goldsman, 51, says by phone from his New York apartment. “But it was a hard concept for me to figure out how to put on screen for quite a long time.”
Goldsman was taking another pass at Winter’s Tale in summer 2010 when his wife, Rebecca Spikings-Goldsman, died of a heart attack. She was 42. After months of trying to think and feel his way through the traumatic loss (“Everything just breaks,” Goldsman says), he woke up one morning and started writing Winter’s Tale again. Goldsman worked at home in a tiny bell tower that his wife had converted into an office.
“The book suddenly went from something I loved to the only thing that mattered,” Goldsman says.
And as such, Goldsman felt he needed to direct the film based on it. To make that happen, he called in 20 years of favours, enlisting old friends like Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Will Smith to work for scale (or slightly above it). He also waived his remaining writing fees and put his Directors Guild minimum salary back into the movie.
Warner Bros looked at the material, which, because of its fantasy elements, would require a fair amount of effects work, and figured it would cost about $75mn to make. They told Goldsman he could have about half that.
Goldsman pared most of the book’s unexplained mythology, pushing the love story between a 19th century thief (Colin Farrell) and a dying young woman (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay) to the fore. Crowe plays an underworld gang leader, and Smith has a cameo best left to the imagination.
Filming, heavy on location work in New York, was hectic, delayed slightly by Hurricane Sandy. The company hired to do the visual effects, Rhythm & Hues, went bankrupt. Goldsman kept driving forward, happy finally to be making the film.
“I’m the kind of romantic that likes to find the meaning in things,” Goldsman says.
“Just in its natural course, life is sufficiently hard. And if you can find the hope underneath that, that there is connectedness and some reason to it, then there’s some comfort in that. That’s what I’ve learned anyway. And I think that feeling is in the movie.” — By Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, MCT
Watson wants to go beyond acting
Actress Emma Watson wants to go beyond being just an actor. The 23-year-old is close to completing her degree in English Literature and she is looking forward to using her free time to pursue some different hobbies. “When I finish my degree, I will have a lot more time to pursue other passions, and I want to figure out what those will be,” contactmusic.com quoted her as saying. “I love having something completely unrelated to the film industry. I want to find something that will let me use my brain in another way. “I like connecting people who aren’t part of that industry. I love painting. So maybe I hone in on that and do more art classes? Or maybe something different. I’m a board two certified qualified yoga instructor,” she added. – IANS
McConaughey floored
Actor Matthew McConaughey was “floored” by the dialogues which he got to deliver in the film Dallas Buyers Club. In the film, the actor plays an Aids patient Ron Woodroof and he was deeply touched when his character had to admit that he was “dying”. “My most surprising moment during filming was when Ron says, ‘Look, I’m dying’. Saying that word, ‘dying’ floored me. To face that not as a concept, but as a reality,” Bang Showbiz quoted McConaughey as saying. McConaughey has also earned his first best actor Oscar nomination for the role. – IANS
Christina Aguilera engaged
Singer Christina Aguilera is engaged to her boyfriend Matt Rutler after he proposed to her on Valentine’s Day. She said yes. Rutler, a film producer, popped the question to her Friday. She accepted the proposal and later flaunted her huge new diamond ring via a photograph on microblogging site Twitter, reports contactmusic.com.
The post shows the picture of the couple holding hands with her new ring on display prominently.
She posted: “He asked and I said... (sic)”
A source close to the couple, who has been dating since 2010, told People.com: “They’re very much in love and are really excited to take this next step.” Aguilera met Rutler on the set of Burlesque in which she starred and he was a film assistant. At that time, she was going through a painful split from her first husband Jordan Bratman. — IANS
Ben Affleck gives out generous tip
Actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck tipped a waitress over $90 when she bought a cup of coffee. The generous Argo star was in a rush while in a coffee shop in Santa Monica, California, and left the waitress a huge tip when he realised he was only carrying $100 notes, reports contactmusic.com.
A source said: “The clerk told him it was so early that she didn’t have enough change in the register and could he wait while she went to the back office safe. But Ben told her, ‘Don’t bother - you keep the change.’ “She baulked at first, but when Ben insisted, she said, ‘Wow, that is so nice of you! My mom’s visiting form Winsconsin, and I’ll take her out to dinner with this.’” As he departed, Affleck told the waitress: “Good, tell her I said Hi.” — IANS
BELOW:
MR PEABODY & PEERS: Mr Peabody (second left) is flanked by Sherman (left) and actors Ty Burrell (second right) and Max Charles as he shows his paws after putting them in cement at an installation pawprint ceremony for Mr Peabody, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Burrell voices the character of Mr Peabody in the soon to be released DreamWorks animated movie Mr Peabody & Sherman about a dog and his adopted boy.