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The LA Premiere
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The Beach Premiere Pictures
Here is the truth about
just how successful The Beach was at the boxoffice, from Inside Film....
Mechanic on His Fox Departure: 'It Was Personal' By Chris
Petrikin Thursday , June 29 09:55 p.m.
It's been a week since
Bill Mechanic surrendered the chairmanship of Fox Filmed Entertainment; a
short period, which he admits has been a roller coaster of emotions,
introspection and speculation. Mechanic, a normally stoic businessman
known for his hyper focus (some call it obstinacy) as well as his love of
films, says he was rocked by the outpouring of affection he received from
people inside and outside the Century City lot. ''I am, I think, a
combination of arrogance and humility, but I am completely humbled by this
experience,'' he admitted shortly after leaving the lot last Friday.
But after his ouster, the feisty executive -- in a series of
e-mail correspondences with Inside -- seems in good spirits, all the while
staunchly defending his tenure atop the studio owned by Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp.
It's well known that Mechanic's relationship with
Murdoch and his number two, Peter Chernin, devolved over the years into a
contentious affair, by which Mechanic was constantly called to task for
his filmmaking decisions and forced to defend his choices throughout his
slates' development, production and distribution.
What's an
example of a film, or films, that have turned a profit after ''more than
one life,'' but seemed a disappointment initially?
Do you mean like
The Beach, which people report as disappointing and actually earns $20
million on a $50 million investment? If that is the question, what happens
is that the film grosses $40 million, I think, which means it didn't
really work here. However, it grosses $110 million overseas. That
essentially means that The Beach recovers almost all of its negative and
marketing costs, on a worldwide basis, after worldwide theatrical, leaving
worldwide video, worldwide pay TV and worldwide free TV to recover the
remaining costs and turn a profit. For the press to have been accurate in
portraying it as a ''disappointment,'' the film would have had to gross
$40 million overseas; then, at best, it would have broken even and more
likely it would have lost a small amount of money.
Some favourite
quotes...
NEW YORK (ENTERTAINMENT WIRE) - Virginie Ledoyen, who
appears on the cover of GLAMOUR magazine for March, candidly talks about
Leonardo DiCaprio, her heartthrob love interest in the upcoming
blockbuster "The Beach."
About DiCaprio, she admits, "Well, he's
great. I expected him to (act like) this Hollywood superstar, but he's
nothing like the spoiled brat the tabloids make him out to be. In reality,
he's generous, simple, charming and lots of fun." Although the two
stars worked together for four months on a deserted island, Ledoyen claims
that their relationship is strictly professional. "There are still a
lot of personal things we don't know about each other."
From
reel.com: an interview with Danny Boyle - Q: But in the book isn't
the main character British?
DB: It's a British character in the
book, and he's sooo British. He's very repressed and he's not saying what
he's feeling. And the first thing we decided, to be honest, was we were
going to get rid of that. He's got to get off with the French girl! It's a
movie for goodness sake, you know, it's all about contact. And I always
say if it's a good decision, then other things roll off from it and it
became part of Richard's character. He's much more aggressive. He's very
passive in the book, and he's much more a conqueror in the film. He says
in the beginning, "I'm looking for something, and I don't care if it's
dangerous."
Q: When DiCaprio signed onto the movie, did you have
to change anything in the script for him?
DB: He's not like that at
all. All he wanted to do was not make Titanic again. He wanted to make a
film that was interesting and difficult. He has a great instinct ... and
he wants, like we do, to make a difficult film for the mainstream
audience. He doesn't want to make ghetto films, like art-house films for
incredibly restricted audiences.
"For a while we were untouchable in our happiness"..
"I thought we'd have to talk about our positive energies a lot, kiss
the earth every morning and recycle our waste products by some unspeakable
mechanism. Fortunately not, it really was some kind of
paradise!"
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