May
8
Rudin Talks to NYT
I've been wanting to write a Scott Rudin story. That's because the New York-based producer is on a roll. This is the year that the guy--a prolific filmmaker, with fabulous taste, a theater producer as well as a film producer--will probably finally make it to the Oscar derby. He missed, with The Hours. He deserves to get there. But Rudin won't go to Cannes to share the kudos for the Coens' No Country for Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. Rudin doesn't like publicity. He hates it because so often it's negative. That's because he's a diva and a control freak--along with being a brilliant producer of excellent movies.
I've been prepping a column about all his promising projects coming up. The Paul Thomas Anderson movie There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day Lewis, wasn't finished in time for Cannes. Rudin also produced Noah Baumbach's Margot's Wedding, starring Nicole Kidman, and the Kimberly Peirce movie, Stop Loss, starring Ryan Philippe. And there's more in the works, from Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to Jonathan Frazen's The Corrections. And what's going on with Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking?
I know Scott. I've talked to him many times. And I'm the idiot. Because when I said, "I'm going to do it with you or without you," and he bit my head off, I thought he wanted to time the story. He had his PR rep call and promise to work something out. And then went ahead and played ball with the NYT.
So it goes.
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I worked for Scott as his assistant (one of the many hundreds). He's an awful human being. I hated him but never once did I loose respect for him or ever lost that awe I had for his talent and abilities.
Posted by: 4th grade army | May 08, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Famous Monsters of Filmland, Part One.
When I was working at Book Soup a few years ago, a young woman called in one day, terrorized and in tears, having been ordered by Rudin to track down a certain book "or else."
If Rudin imagines that any number of good movies somehow outweighs sadistic, bullying behavior, he is a moron as well as a bastard.
Posted by: David C | May 08, 2007 at 01:00 PM
Did he find the book?
Posted by: BG | May 08, 2007 at 02:29 PM
I think we found it for him, much to the relief of the harried young assistant. Sometimes even bookstore clerks can save lives.
Posted by: David C | May 08, 2007 at 04:10 PM
There's a novel here to be written about Rudin, clearly. I nominate Anne Thompson to write it.
Posted by: Michael Blowhard | May 08, 2007 at 04:15 PM