April
17
Every Little Step: from Start to Stern
In the movie business, the mix of art and commerce is always tricky. Some people have taste and talent smarts, but no business acumen. Developing a good script is one thing, but getting it produced is another. The ability to smell a hit is a weapon that only some producers have in their arsenal. Others easily churn out "product" but wouldn't know a good movie if it hit them on the head. When one person combines taste, quality control, and business moxy, then you get the rarest thing of all in Hollywood: a consistent track record.
Jim Stern of Endgame Entertainment is on a roll. While he varies his level of investment and responsibility in three to four projects a year, he had the sense to nail down significant pieces of several upcoming quality movies. At the recent Toronto Film Festival, during a time when self-distribution is the best option available to many indies, Stern went in with one film already sold: The Brothers Bloom, a caper comedy starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo, which was pre-bought by Summit Entertainment (now set for release May 29). Two Endgame films also sold to Sony Pictures Classics: BBC Film's Noel Coward period comedy Easy Virtue, starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes and Colin Firth, and Every Little Step , a doc about the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line, featuring Broadway's first-ever filmed auditions, which Stern financed and co-directed with frequent collaborator Adam Del Deo. And at Sundance in January, Sony Pictures Classics also acquired Lone Scherfig and Nick Hornby's BBC film An Education, which Stern partly funded.
Not bad, having your own production funding. But the question is, how do you use it? In the case of Every Little Step, which opened April 17 to strong reviews, Stern was in a position to know what to do. The Chicago-born theater major from the University of Michigan had produced sixteen Broadway shows, including Stomp, The Producers, and Hairspray. He had produced such films as Proof and Stage Beauty. Stern had directed three films with Del Deo, on basketball, politics and theater. And he had financed a number of films, plays and TV shows since he founded Endgame in 2003. "It really helps being a director," Stern says, "even when I'm producing. It makes things easier and smoother when it's easy to understand what people are trying to do. All you ask is that the director makes the film they say they're going to make."
All Stern's experience came together with the doc Every Little Step when an old theater acquaintance, attorney John Breglio, gave him the Michael Bennett tapes from the snowy night in 1974 when he first conceived of A Chorus Line at a 12-hour marathon session with 19 dancers. When Stern heard the tapes, he felt chills and thought, "This is a movie."
Stern and Del Deo shot some 500 hours of video, and waded through tons of archived footage. With first-time ever permission from Actors' Equity to shoot auditions for the new show, the filmmakers began following 50 to 60 singer/dancers, often using four cameras to capture key moments. "Fortunately in this world, people were used to cameras," says Stern, who knew he had "doc gold" when director Bob Avian wept as Jason Tam nailed his audition as Paul. "We were like flies on the wall. You shoot first and ask questions later."
The film took 18 months to film and 12 months to cut. Luckily Stern didn't have to answer to a financing entity as the $5-million project's end-date kept moving back, because it was him. He was running Endgame during the day and working on the film nights and weekends. "I saw that we needed to walk a careful line between what was historical and contemporary, finding the right metric," he says. Thus scads of juicy material ended up on the cutting room floor.
Finally, Stern, who also has a Wall Street background, started Endgame with banker Doug Hansen so that he could control his own destiny. Three years later they were able to recapitalize. The company flourishes because Stern balances risk with the bottom line (a tough and sometimes opportunistic negotiator, he admires Harvey Weinstein). "You can't live in fear," Stern says. "If you question everything you do, the next thing you know you don't go outside. We are in a business where you embrace risk. There is the possibility that things won't work out. It will be OK if they don't."
With the R-rated comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy in post and eight projects ramping up for green-lights, including pictures with Ira Glass and Tobey Maguire, a solid distribution partnership is in Stern's sights. "My goal is to do well by my investors," he says. "I love what I do, and that leads me to structure things that make sense. The things I wanted to make are movies that I'd pay money to see twice. I don't bet the ranch on one film, but multiple films over many years. I'm a lifer."
Here's the NYT's review and feature and and NPR's story.
And the trailer:
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Anne Thompson;
We (Margaret Abigail and I) went to see: EVERY LITTLE STEP on Sunday and enjoyed.
My mind immediately knew the trails and trivulations one goes thru to get something entertaining done and enjoyed seeing it put on film. Hat's off to Jim Stern and all those that put the movie together. Nice insight!
The reason for my e-mail is that I have put together a 2 page arc for your possible review on EVERY LITTLE BITE: How one violent Vietnam Veteran changes with EVERY LITTLE BITE of food into a peaceful, loving father who wants to be a "SAVE YOUR" (savior)of the world by entertaining people towards eating a plant-based diet!
When you read it I think you will (and Jim Stern will also ) say, THERES A MOVIE HERE!
My e-mail is to ask you to review my arc and then what's my next step in contacting ENDGAME ENTERTAINMENT
can you help?
david snieckus 617-964-2951
davidsnieckus@hotmail.com
Posted by: David Snieckus | May 20, 2009 at 03:00 PM