AHC: Save the Heaven's Gate movie (and United Artists)

During an idle bit of YouTubing, I stumbled across this documentary on the making of the Emperor of All Flops:
Director Michael Cimino set out to make the Gone With the Wind of Westerns. It certainly seemed he could do so - Cimino had won five Academy Awards for his previous film, The Deer Hunter. Yet Heaven's Gate's budget ballooned to extraordinary proportions and production stretched months beyond the intended wrap. Soon, the media was filled with stories of an incompetent, disastrous production taking place under the auspices of UA. While this was not, in fact, true, (production was a tightly-run ship, even if it was horrifyingly overbudget and behind schedule), it already had the public talking.

After an intial release, United Artists pulled the film at Cimino's request to be re-edited. The film failed on its second release, and made only a fraction of its budget back ($1.5 million out of a $40+ million production, though I need to check this). Infamously, the failure of the film sunk the already ailing United Artists.

Could this film have been saved, or even be the masterpiece Cimino and UA were sure it would be? Based on the information presented in the doc, I think the potential was there. Once David Field put his foot down and forced Cimino to be on time and on budget for the filming of the prologue, the production went just as they had hoped. I can't help but think that if UA had made it abundantly clear that Cimino had to achieve perfection without breaking the bank, things could have gone so much better. UA should never have allowed Cimino to bully them into casting a French actress he liked that they couldn't understand and knew audiences wouldn't either. Allowing Cimino to make his friend (with no experience producing films) to be the producer, was a terrible mistake, one that effectively allowed him to run production as a perfectionistic autocrat.
 
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During an idle bit of YouTubing, I stumbled across this documentary on the making of the Emperor of All Flops:
Director Michael Cimino set out to make the Gone With the Wind of Westerns. It certainly seemed he could do so - Cimino had won five Academy Awards for his previous film, The Deer Hunter. Yet Heaven's Gate's budget ballooned to extraordinary proportions and production stretched months beyond the intended wrap. Soon, the media was filled with stories of an incompetent, disastrous production taking place under the auspices of UA. While this was not, in fact, true, (production was a tightly-run ship, even if it was horrifyingly overbudget and behind schedule), it already had the public talking.

After an intial release, United Artists pulled the film at Cimino's request to be re-edited. The film failed on its second release, and made only a fraction of its budget back ($1.5 million out of a $40+ million production, though I need to check this). Infamously, the failure of the film sunk the already ailing United Artists.

Could this film have saved, or even be the masterpiece Cimino and UA were sure it would be? Based on the information presented in the doc, I think the potential was there. Once David Field put his foot down and forced Cimino to be on time and on budget for the filming of the prologue, the production just as they had hoped. I can't help but think that if UA had made it abundantly clear that Cimino had to achieve perfection without breaking the bank, things could have gone so much better. UA should never have allowed Cimino to bully them into casting a French actress he liked that they couldn't understand and knew audiences wouldn't either. Allowing Cimino to make his friend (with no experience producing films) to be the producer, was a terrible mistake, one that effectively allowed him to run production as a perfectionistic autocrat.

Had this film been saved Hollywood would have likely been very different. As a result of this film's failure directorial freedom was curtailed in favor of greater studio control, and a number of big budget flicks that were passed over might have been made
 
Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the film that sank United Artists by Steven Bach is a fantastic book and free to borrow at OpenLibrary.

However it was the rise of agents packaging projects that ended 1970s New Hollywood. Studios gave up control only briefly and would have regained it regardless. The auteur theory was junk and given all the other New Hollywood flops piling up….

It’s also too late to save UA. The competent management tried to buyout the studio from Transamerica but were turned down (implausible but possible POD). They went off to form Orion Pictures and the new management were the folks that gave Heaven’s Gate a green light IIRC.

All of that said if UA in fact cracks down and gets a $10 million Heavens Gate that makes say $20 million, enough to be only a moderate loss, then UA is valuable enough for Transamerica to sell to somebody else more interesting.
 
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Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the film that sank United Artists by Steven Bach is a fantastic book and free to borrow at OpenLibrary.

However it was the rise of agents packaging projects that ended 1970s New Hollywood. Studios gave up control only briefly and would have regained it regardless. The auteur theory was junk and given all the other New Hollywood flops piling up….

It’s also too late to save UA. The competent management tried to buyout the studio from Transamerica but were turned down (implausible but possible POD). They went off to form Orion Pictures and the new management were the folks that gave Heaven’s Gate a green light IIRC.

All of that said if UA in fact cracks down and gets a $10 million Heavens Gate that makes say $20 million, enough to be only a moderate loss, then UA is valuable enough for Transamerica to sell to somebody else more interesting.
I believe Cimino initially projected $12.5 million for the film, though I can't help but think he just couldn't stay within his budget, only go less overbudget.
 
How about if UA simply passed on the project?
Well, that would certainly go some distance to filling one half of the challenge, that being saving UA. The idea of a film based on the Johnson County War is quite appealing to me, and I love a good EPIC.
 
The old management stays, greenlights the film with some major script changes (read: Cimino is forced to bring in Leigh Brackett, Mario Puzo, & Alvin Sargent). With Cimino (The Deer Hunter), Brackett (The Big Sleep), Puzo (The Godfather, Superman), & Sargent (2-time Best Adapted Screenplay winner), the film becomes a major hit.
 
The old management stays, greenlights the film with some major script changes (read: Cimino is forced to bring in Leigh Brackett, Mario Puzo, & Alvin Sargent). With Cimino (The Deer Hunter), Brackett (The Big Sleep), Puzo (The Godfather, Superman), & Sargent (2-time Best Adapted Screenplay winner), the film becomes a major hit.

Shooting for Heaven’s Gate began in April of 79. Leigh Brackett died in March of 78 after finishing her rough draft for The Empire Strikes Back
 
Cimino had won five Academy Awards for his previous film, The Deer Hunter.

Which I never understood. Mind you, the whole crackpot idea of nightclubs in Vietnam where foreigners can get rich by playing Russian roulette for the locals, was pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

(If someone can comfirm the existence of such places in Saigon 1975, I will agree to reassess my opinion.)
 
Which I never understood. Mind you, the whole crackpot idea of nightclubs in Vietnam where foreigners can get rich by playing Russian roulette for the locals, was pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

(If someone can comfirm the existence of such places in Saigon 1975, I will agree to reassess my opinion.)
It was symbolic of the decadent effects of the Americans had on the Vietnamese people or so I was told at a Film Appreciation class I once took, but I think it was really that Michael Cimino thought it was a cool idea to film and he just used the Vietnam War as a way to shoehorn it in.
 
Which I never understood. Mind you, the whole crackpot idea of nightclubs in Vietnam where foreigners can get rich by playing Russian roulette for the locals, was pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

(If someone can comfirm the existence of such places in Saigon 1975, I will agree to reassess my opinion.)
Very much like Cimino having a Harvard graduate become a sherriff in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming for whatever reason.* Cimino talked about how hard he strived for realism in this film, and it definitely is, for the most part, though there are some Rule of Cool moments.

*Depending on how you interpret the movie, it's possible only the prologue and epilogue are "reality" with most of the film being "all just a dream."
 
Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the film that sank United Artists by Steven Bach is a fantastic book and free to borrow at OpenLibrary.

However it was the rise of agents packaging projects that ended 1970s New Hollywood. Studios gave up control only briefly and would have regained it regardless. The auteur theory was junk and given all the other New Hollywood flops piling up….

It’s also too late to save UA. The competent management tried to buyout the studio from Transamerica but were turned down (implausible but possible POD). They went off to form Orion Pictures and the new management were the folks that gave Heaven’s Gate a green light IIRC.

All of that said if UA in fact cracks down and gets a $10 million Heavens Gate that makes say $20 million, enough to be only a moderate loss, then UA is valuable enough for Transamerica to sell to somebody else more interesting.
Can you expand on how you can get Arthur Krim & co to stay on? I'm guessing the POD would involve the feud with the Transamerica brass not happening or something similar.
 
Very much like Cimino having a Harvard graduate become a sherriff in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming for whatever reason.* Cimino talked about how hard he strived for realism in this film, and it definitely is, for the most part, though there are some Rule of Cool moments.

*Depending on how you interpret the movie, it's possible only the prologue and epilogue are "reality" with most of the film being "all just a dream."

Which Cimino film has the Harvard sherriff?
 
It was symbolic of the decadent effects of the Americans had on the Vietnamese people or so I was told at a Film Appreciation class I once took, but I think it was really that Michael Cimino thought it was a cool idea to film and he just used the Vietnam War as a way to shoehorn it in.

But as I recall, the professional Russian Roulette shows were run by a French guy, not an American. Though I guess the French were the previous colonial powers, so if we're really desperate to prop up the anti-imperialist reading, that could work.

And I could buy the Viet Cong forcing American POWs to play Russian Roulette, even if that didn't technically happen in real life. But the whole nightclub thing at the end was just too over-the-top.
 
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