January
9
Sony Pictures Classics Adds Two Pics to Sundance Slate
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired two movies in advance of the Sundance fest--James Toback's well-received Cannes doc Tyson, and the Mexican director troica Cha Cha Cha's first outing,Rudo y Cursi,a soccer flick reuniting Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, directed by Carlos Cuaron. This practice of selling movies before film fests is something SPC co-prexys Tom Bernard and Michael Barker wish more filmmakers would emulate, but suspect they won't. "We prefer to set up a film with press there," says Barker. "It's an advantage to have a company attached, to be able to answer questions, knowing what you're going to do with it."
SPC and Toback started talking about the Tyson acquisition at Cannes, but rights issues blocked the sale of North American rights until recently. They told Toback they would be happy to wait and make the deal when rights were cleared, and so they did. NBA star Carmelo Anthony, who recently founded Krossover Prods, is also joining the movie as exec producer.
I saw Tyson at Cannes; it is a strong, moving document of a riveting character, former world heavyweight Mike Tyson, as he reexamines his life and choices with moving honesty. Here's my Cannes interview with Toback and Todd McCarthy's review.
SPC was already planning a Sundance press launch for the guitar doc It Might Get Loud, directed by Davis Guggenheim, which debuted at Toronto. Guggenheim's last entry at Sundance went pretty well: An Inconvenient Truth.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
As the former assistant manager of Mike Tyson I was shocked at the lies and fabrications Mike told in this movie.
I was asked to screen this documentary by ESPN which owns the rights to most of the various Tyson fight videos used in the movie.
I was more interested in what Mike had to say.
The lies he told were:
1. He was always an addict
2. He was always an alcoholic
3. He always had demons
4. Managers Jacobs and Cayton signed him when he was underage
4. Managers Jacobs and Cayton were "slave masters"
It is obvious that Mike's new manager, Harlan Werner, is just as devious as Robin Givens, Don King and Shelly Finkel, the people responsible for Mike going from being the world's most popular athlete (1987 European AP poll) to the bum of the century.
In this film Mike completely ignores the period, 1984-1988. when he was a super hero with original managers Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs. During that time he was the darling of corporate America as evidenced by his being hired to do network TV commercials for Pepsi Cola, Nintendo Video and Kodak Film. Not enough - he was hired by the New York City Police Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to do PSA's. The Police and FBI do not usually hire people to act as role models who are addicts or who have demons. (Please see link below for photos of these campaigns)
Mike was interviewed by the New York Times before he went to Cannes for the debut of the movie. In the interview he told lie after lie about his life.
Here is a link to the article:
www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/movies/11aran.html
Here is the link to the letter I wrote to the Times that was printed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/arts/01alsmail-MIKETYSON_LETTERS.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Two years ago, when I first learned that this movie was to be made I warned Tyson's manager Harlen Werner, director James Toback, as well as the producer of the film, Jeffrey Berg, that Mike would lie to protect himself from looking like a buffoon.
I gave them specific details of what should be done to bring Mike back into the public eye in a very positive way.
These details were:
1. Dump all the bums that surround Mike and replace them with an old friend of Mike's who recently retired from the FBI
2. Get rid of the insane facial tattoo - no questions asked.
3. Have the FBI friend pull some strings to get Mike to Iraq to do exhibitions for the troops for a period of 6 months. Exhibitions to include the opportunity for every man stationed there to get one minute in the ring with Tyson for fun.
4. After six months bring Mike back to the United States and begin doing fund raising exhibitions for Police Departments and Fire Departments.
Mike's manager Harlen Werner ignored me completely.
The reason - none of my suggestions would put money in Werner's pocket. And that is his only objective.
My entire correspondence with Werner, the film's producers, as well as documents and photos proving Mike's huge hero status with Cayton and Jacobs may be found at this website:
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/news/archives/00004333.htm
Steve Lott
Mike Tyson Assistant Manager
1984-1988
Posted by: Steve Lott | January 20, 2009 at 03:59 PM