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Supernovas With Limits N.Y. TIMES REVIEW By BERNARD WEINRAUB In the good old days of Hollywood -- meaning, last year -- the prospect
of projects with Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger would have made
studio executives pop the champagne corks. Whatever the price of the star
and the movie. Not anymore. In the last week, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers have taken the
unusual steps of removing two high-profile projects -- one starring Mr.
Ford (above), the other Mr. Schwarzenegger -- from the fast track. The Ford film, ''The Age of Aquarius,'' written and to be directed by
Phil Alden Robinson, was shelved by Universal when the studio grew alarmed
about its nearly $90 million cost. It may yet surface at a lower budget
there or elsewhere. Similarly, the creators of ''I Am Legend,'' a planned Schwarzenegger sci-fi epic at Warner Brothers to be directed by Ridley Scott, were told to trim the $100 million-plus
budget by $20 million, or else no movie. ''This would have been absolutely unheard of six months ago,'' a studio
chief remarked the other morning, pointing out that casting a big movie
star no longer guaranteed success with either the public or the studios.
''Because you have a big star in an epic now doesn't mean you're going
to get your costs back,'' he said. In both cases, there's a background story. Warner Brothers, which has
shown little concern in the past about mega-budget epics, has experienced
a series of big-time flops like ''Fathers' Day'' and ''Mad City'' and
disappointments like ''Batman and Robin'' with such stars as Robin Williams,
John Travolta and Mr. Schwarzenegger. By all accounts, the studio's Burbank-based
bosses want to show Gerald M. Levin, Time Warner's chairman, and Ted Turner,
the vice chairman, that the studio is not profligate. And Mr. Schwarzenegger, still a big action star, has recently made more
mishaps than successes. At Universal, which was purchased in 1995 by the Seagram Company, people
connected to ''The Age of Aquarius'' said executives recoiled because
the nearly $90 million projected cost of the movie, with perhaps $40 million
more to market it, seemed out of sync with the project's nature. The film
is not the type of action or special-effects movie that results in soaring
budgets; it is a drama about the lives of relief workers who travel from
Lebanon to Africa to Bosnia. Some of those connected to the movie said it was essentially a poignant
art film on a serious subject that had turned unwieldy and expensive because
of Mr. Ford. The actor himself made few demands. But the fact that he
was the movie's star made it necessary for Universal to turn the script
into a vehicle for him. ''You had to shoehorn an art film that tackled lofty subjects into something
that it wasn't -- a star vehicle,'' said an executive close to the film.
Mr. Ford's co-star was to be Kristin Scott Thomas. ''The movie came to represent a huge investment of corporate capital,''
said Sean Daniel, one of the producers, ''and was not the kind of genre
movie that has its own investment rules.'' Coincidentally, the film was evolving as Seagram began pressing Universal
to cut costs. Universal executives have not forgotten 'Waterworld,''' said one such
executive, referring to Universal's 1995 misfire starring Kevin Costner.
''Any institution that lives through that tends to have a permanent memory
of big, expensive films gone wrong,'' he said. THE FOLLOWING NOT ABOUT "LEGEND" BUT GOOD, NEVERTHELESS (Damon started his career as an uncredited extra in "Field of Dreams!" with Ben Affleck): The Weird Life What happens to a young actor who has worked quietly for several years,
was able to walk into the supermarket or dry cleaners without anyone noticing
and then, almost overnight, finds himself thrust into the spotlight as
a star? ''It still feels so fabricated,'' said Matt Damon (above), Hollywood's
star of the moment after his breakthrough performance in ''Good Will Hunting,''
which he wrote with one of his co-stars, Ben Affleck. ''First of all, not that many moviegoers have seen me yet,'' he added.
''It's only the media, and I keep getting the feeling that we've all gotten
together to rook the general public. The biggest change in my life is
that I'm working until next October, which is fantastic and daunting.
Other than that, I'm still a 27-year-old punk.'' Not quite. Mr. Damon, who was raised in Cambridge, Mass., and studied
at Harvard, seems shrewd about stardom. At the moment, he's also appearing
in Francis Ford Coppola's ''Rainmaker,'' has completed Steven Spielberg's
World War II film, ''Saving Private Ryan'' (he plays Private Ryan), and
will play a leading role in ''The Strange Dr. Ripley,'' directed by Anthony
Minghella. Next week he starts filming a drama about poker players, ''The
Rounders,'' for the director John Dahl. Mr. Damon said he was not worried that he would become isolated from
friends and real life. ''I can't fathom that happening,'' he said. ''It takes a concerted effort,
and it's a question of choice. The temptation is to disregard reality
and live in a world where you're the king and everyone else is a subject.
A lot of people do that. But that would be horrible. The isolation would
be so profound. And that's reserved for Elvis. I just want to be able
to laugh at myself and buy eggs at the store and not live a weird life.'' But what about the magazine covers and all that attention? ''That's not
what I signed up to do,'' Mr. Damon said. ''This shameless self-promotion
is antithetical to acting. That's what I do. I'm just looking forward
to getting back to work.''
Asked where he lived, Mr. Damon replied nowhere. ''I live nowhere,'' he
said. ''Since August I've been on the road, going from job to job. I have
stuff in storage in Jersey City.'' Why Jersey City? ''It's cheaper there,'' said the actor, whose acting
fee for a studio film is now into the millions. ''Have you ever tried
storage in Manhattan? It's like you're paying rent for an apartment.'' In ''Good Will Hunting,'' which has opened to generally strong reviews
in a few cities and is set to expand around the nation in the next few
weeks, Mr. Damon plays a troubled blue-collar South Boston youth who mops
floors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a mathematical
genius. The cast includes Mr. Affleck, as his friend; Minnie Driver, as
a student who falls in love with him, and Robin Williams, as a psychiatrist
who deals with him. ''It's not afraid to be emotional -- I think that's a key to this film,''
Mr. Damon said. ''It touches themes of loyalty and friendship. It's a
bit of a welcome change because it's not cynical at all.'' Asked about his favorite actors, Mr. Damon replied: ''Brando, it's always
Brando, and then Montgomery Clift. Those guys were revolutionaries.'' Whether Mr. Damon will emerge as a big star is, of course, unknowable.
Hollywood is desperate to find the next generation of stars from among
those now in their 20's and early 30's. Last year Matthew McConaughey
seemed to be It, appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair, as Mr. Damon did
recently. And several years ago, Julia Ormond appeared on magazine covers
and was hyped as a star. But neither has made it to stardom. Mr. Damon said his friends, many from high school, keep him in line.
''They kid me, they tell me they see my face everywhere on magazine covers,
they say they can't get away from me,'' Mr. Damon said. ''Their opinion
counts so much to me. That won't change, will it?'' For online version, go to: Supernovas with Limits |
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