PHOTOS HOLLYWOOD 1

MY LIFE IN PHOTOS - HOLLYWOOD 1

DIONYSUS IN ’69, my very first produced film. Brian de Palma, Bob Fiore, and I directed it together from a play staged by Richard Schechner and the Performance Group. It came out in 1970.

Scenes from DIONYSUS IN’69. It was a performance play in which Dionysus tries nightly to seduce a woman in the audience. To my knowledge he never succeeded but many people were removing some of their clothes, including my wife Blanche who was bare breasted as we were shooting. She looked great on screen but unfortunately we felt uneasy about letting our parents see the finished work.

Brian de Palma somehow got a job shooting the opening night of a show called THE RESPONSIVE EYE at the Museum of Modern Art in NY. I was an Assistant Director and so many of my friends helped work on it including Bob Fiore and David Moscovitz.

One of my earliest movie scripts was called THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA. It sprang from my fascination with this painting by Theodore Gericault. This photo was shot 50 years after I wrote the script. Unfortunately it never got made.

BRAINSTORM was my first major Hollywood film. There is a huge back story and you will have to read the book to learn it.

I am sitting at the table in Joel Freedman’s office for his company Cinnamon Productions. From the left are Douglas Trumbull (famous for the special effects in 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, STAR TREK and BLADE RUNNER). Phil Messina, a professor of screenwriting at NYU, Joel Freedman our producer and me. Phil is about to re-write my script and we are discussing changes. Getting re-written in Hollywood is the norm but it is never easy. Luckily Phil is a wonderful writer.

DEADLY FRIEND was my next produced film. It was directed by Wes Craven following his huge hit NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. He was a joy to work with. My family and I were often on the set. It was a great welcome to Hollywood. I had not wanted to write a horror film but Rudi came to me in a dream and said to do it. It turned out to be a true gift, emotionally and financially.

GHOST changed my life. Jerry Zucker, the director, enriched my life. I only have awe for what this film represented in my journey.

To everyone’s disbelief, GHOST became the number one grossing film of 1990. Made for $22 million it grossed over half a billion dollars. That is a good way to secure a career in Hollywood.

I had a lot to do helping Patrick Swayze get the part in GHOST. We were both lucky that I did.

Working with Jerry Zucker, the director of GHOST, was the best creative experience of my life. We remain dear friends to this day.

We had a great crew on GHOST. I am standing behind Jerry. Adam Greenberg, our extraordinary cinematographer, is lining up a shot. This was our very first day of shooting. Demi Moore is preparing for her very first take as Molly, the heroine of the movie.

I am sitting with the producers of the film, Lisa Weinstein to the left, Steven-Charles Jaffe in the middle. In my last week of pitching the movie I had five people who wanted to produce GHOST. Lisa was the only one who cried when I told the story. I chose her.

Bill Horberg, in the center, was an executive at Paramount who helped watch over the movie along with LIndsay Doran, a Senior Vice President, who championed its production there. They remain my close friends to this day.

Jerry Zucker and me looking at the monitor as the film was being shot. Jerry is the only director who truly encouraged me to be alongside him for the entire shoot of the film. Mostly writers are not invited to be on the set. Directors worry that they might have conflicting opinions and slow down production. Jerry allowed for a communication that served us both and was the best creative experience of my career.

Me on the GHOST set as the angel is being hoisted into the window of the apartment.

One of the great joys of writing and being Associate Producer of Ghost is that allowed me to push to have my mom in the film. It was a high point of her life and a high point of the film.

My mom on set. She is the nun who takes the check from Oda Mae and faints when she sees how big it is. It is a wonderful laugh.

The cast of GHOST at the Deauville Film Festival in France. Jerry is next to me with his daughter Kate. Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg are to his right.

After the screening at the Deauville Film Festival.

More from Deauville. Howard Koch, another producer, is at the right.

Jerry addressing the audience.

Opening night of GHOST. Blanche is to my right. Jerry and Janet Zucker are to my left. We had no idea what a worldwide hit the movie would become.

Another opening night photo posing with Paramount executives.

At the Oscars, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jodi Foster reading my name.

Me, giving my acceptance speech. I thanked everyone I could. Most importantly, I held the Oscar into the air and thanked Rudi. In my mind he orchestrated my entire career.

Backstage at the Oscars. There were hundreds of photographers. It was a dazzling moment.

Me, Jodi Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins backstage. The following year they would both be standing in the same spot for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

The best moment of the night.

Me, on the phone the next day, all day, taking congratulatory phone calls. My friend Todd Langan, who wrote TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, gave me a turtle as a consolation prize in case I didn’t win.

JACOB’S LADDER was a script I wrote in DeKalb. American Film Magazine called it one the ten best “unproduced” screenplays in Hollywood—a strange distinction but it opened many doors.

JACOB’S LADDER was not well received by audiences or critics, but this was a good review. The film has gone on to be a cult classic which means people are still watching it and talking about it 30 years later.

This is me with Tim Robbins, the star of JACOB’S LADDER. We are in Puerto Rico where the opening Vietnam scenes were being shot. He autographed this photo.

Me and director Adrian Lyne. He was an amazing collaborator and it is because of his fascination with the script that the movie got made.

Me and Tim again. It was incredible to be on the set of a movie I had written. It is hard to express the sensation of seeing so many people hard at work because of words flowing through my head.

I was rarely on any movie set of a film I had written. It was even rarer to be photographed there.

I never imagined me writing a war film or a horror film. That was not my instinct. But movies arise out of an unknowable space and I learned to take dictation.

Me with Adrian Lyne and producer Alan Marshall.

Me taking photos of the cast.

One of my photos.

This is a disgusting photo of body parts that were in the hospital scene of JACOB’S LADDER. But just so you know, they are all artificial props.

I rewrote the movie SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY. One of the actors had quit, not liking the script, and I was hired to re-write it quickly on location so they could recast. Somehow I pulled it off, and as is often the case, did not get a credit. But I did get to spend time with Julia Roberts and formed a lifelong friendship with Joe Ruben, the director.

This is Joe Ruben, the director of SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY in the production office for the film. We share the feeling that we are related or have relatives from the same town in Russia. He says I look like his grandfather.

MY LIFE is the first and only film I directed. Like many of my films it was not well loved when it arrived but it has touched enough people over the years to make me grateful that I made it.

This is me (back row, second from the right) and much of my post-production crew on MY LIFE. Jerry Zucker who produced the film is front and center where he belongs.

This is me and Hunt Lowry, the line producer on MY LIFE. He saved my ass on a daily basis. I am nothing but grateful to him.

This is me and Peter James, my cinematographer on MY LIFE. He really taught me how to direct. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know. He was a kind and gentle teacher and wonderful DP.

This is me on the set of MY LIFE directing a scene of a circus taking place in the central character’s backyard. It derives from a major episode in my childhood and to know more you will have to read my book, lT’S ONLY A MOVIE, from Amazon.com.

Me and Joshua huddling together during the filming of MY LIFE. He worked as a production assistant on the film and having him around was deeply comforting.

My mom and dad with me on the set of MY LIFE. They are also both in the film (as were many friends and family). They were very proud of me. I am endlessly grateful to them.