American History X

A priest, a rabbi and a Tibetan monk walk into the office of New Line Cinemas’ president Michael DeLuca and ...

This isn’t a setup for a joke, but a partial lineup of the support team American History X director Tony Kaye gathered for his most recent meeting with New Line brass to discuss the delivery date of his cut of the film.

At the July 27 meeting, Kaye, his own holy trinity (two other monks were supposed to attend but were late and missed the parley) and his manager Marty Bauer met with DeLuca, New Line chairman Bob Shaye and production VP Brian Witten to decide when his version of the film would be delivered. (The Brit artist/helmer also brought his own camera crew to film the proceedings, but that’s where the execs drew the line, forbidding the crew from entering the meeting.)

According to Bauer, Kaye assembled this multi-denominational God squad, not as an assault on New Line’s moral groundwork, but because "he felt the meeting would have more of a spiritual tone and be less contentious."

For nearly two months, Kaye has waged a public and costly campaign against New Line over the editing of History X. He is understood to have spent nearly $100,000 on "hype art", his term for the numerous ads he has taken out in Daily Variety and other papers, defending his stance that New Line should release his cut of the film.

Though Kaye had been given more time to work on his edit of the film, New Line reportedly was leaning toward a version of the film that had been put together using their input as well as that of the film’s producers and star, Edward Norton.

Perhaps the clergies’ presence helped, because despite the dadaesque atmosphere he has created around the film, Kaye was given another week to determine when he could deliver the film.

While no one in Kaye’s camp could come up with names for the clergy (who served as silent witnesses and did not speak during the meeting), both his publicist and manager said they were the real thing and not from central casting. New Line refused to comment.

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TIME MARCHES ON with American History X, despite director Tony Kaye’s continuing campaign via ads and a bizarre New Line meeting on its editing in which he was accompanied by a priest, rabbi and Tibetan monk (Daily Variety, July 31). Producer John Morrissey (Larry Turman-John Morrissey Prods.) says New Line, which permitted Kaye to remain in post for a year, has now agreed with Morrissey that the pic is excellent at one hour 55 mins. and, says Morrissey,"We’re cutting negative to be ready for an Oct. 16 release." A premiere will benefit Amnesty Intl. (the pic’s about the Aryan Brotherhood and one of its ex Neo-Nazi members)...[unrelated stories]

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ANOTHER CHAPTER IN American History X: director Tony Kaye told Toronto Film Festival director Piers Handling he did not want his picture to be included in the fest. Kaye arrived at fest h.q. armed with a video camera and caught Handling in the lobby at the elevators. They moved to a reception area nearby where Kaye, with camera, expressed his feelings about having the film excluded from the fest (starts Sept. 10) and its competition. Handling was not familiar with Kaye’s appearance (with camera crew) last week at New Line president Michael DeLuca’s office accompanied by a priest, rabbi and a Tibetan monk. However, the fest director said he wasn’t upset by Kaye’s arrival with a camera. "Some directors like to keep a record of their appearance at the festival from start to finish, like Robert Rodriguez - so I thought the same, that he (Kaye) was making a video diary of the experience. But unfortunately this wasn’t the case." When I reached Kaye at his hotel room, he would only say breathily, "I’m under an immense amount of pressure and can’t talk to you now; one of my dogs isn’t well, and that’s the most important thing for me now." Later calls to him were not returned. So, Handling says, "I am talking to all the principals (the pic’s producer and New Line) and to Alliance, which has the release here in Canada. We have always had good relations with New Line and Fine Line," he added. "There is no real resolution. But we (the festival) do not want to be in the middle." Meanwhile the fest continues scheduling, accepting (and returning?) films...[unrelated stories]

Following highly publicized disagreements between New Line Cinema and American History X director Tony Kaye over the final cut of the film, the company has officially informed the helmer that it is moving ahead with its version.

Kaye said he will "absolutely" be taking his name off the film, adding that he "will be taking every available opportunity to achieve (his) goals" of putting together his own cut.

Under Directors Guild of America rules, Kaye now has until the end of Tuesday to notify New Line and the guild of his intentions to have his name removed, according to New Line. An Oct. 30 release date of the most recent version is now tentatively expected in Los Angeles and New York. That would be followed by a wide release in November.

"I want (Kaye) to continue to be involved," New Line Prods. president Michael De Luca said. "I said to Tony (that) I wanted him to feel that enough of his vision is still in the most recent cut. It is now his decision."

Meanwhile, New Line has withdrawn "History" from consideration for next month's Toronto Film Festival, where it was expected to debut. The drama starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong is about a former neo-Nazi skinhead who tries to prevent his brother from following down the same path of hatred.

Kaye was able to convince Toronto fest director Piers Handling that the most recent version of the movie, which Kaye was involved in putting together but was not happy with, should not be screened at the fest.

"We don't want to be caught in the middle of this," Handling said. "Tony really wanted to go away and make a number of changes to the film, and we have a history of supporting filmmaker's artistic vision."

Handling did add that he was a fan of the most recent cut.

"What I saw, I really liked," he said. "The film is very powerful and very relevant. It was done with a great sensitivity and with tremendous performances."

"I went to Toronto on a mission to get a cut of the film pulled that was not mine," Kaye said. "All it was an aborted version of a much earlier cut of mine."

Following his discussions with Kaye, Handling and the director approached De Luca about allowing Kaye to put together a new version of the film -- something the helmer had promised to deliver to the company for more than two months -- and show that cut at the festival.

But New Line declined the offer. New Line sources, who were very pleased with the most recent cut, said the company was concerned about debuting a version of the film at such a public event. In addition, De Luca wasn't sure whether Kaye could produce a reformulated version of the picture in time. "I couldn't commit to a version that didn't exist," he said.

Following the exchange, De Luca then informed Kaye that the company would no longer wait for the director to recut the film and would move ahead with it.

In the past weeks, Kaye's actions regarding the film have grown more and more curious. Last week, the director brought a priest, a rabbi and a Tibetan monk to a meeting with New Line executives De Luca, Robert Shaye and Brian Witten. The reason: to bring a "spiritual tone" to the event.

He has also run numerous black-and-white ads with cryptic messages in entertainment trade publications.

Kaye said that along with working on the film for some two years, he also has about $1 million of his own money invested in it.

"Other than the ads, we haven't seen a penny (of that money)," a New Line spokesman said.

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Public Pleas: Tony Kaye, the British conceptual artist who has vowed to take his name off his feature directorial debut, American History X because he maintains New Line Cinema is meddling with the film, is again going public in his battle with the studio. In full-page ads placed in this week's Hollywood trade magazines, Kaye has addressed several of the film's co-stars directly, asking them to "help me preserve the integrity of my vision" and "stand by me along with your colleagues who have believed in that vision." Kaye has been wrangling with New Line for months over the fate of the film, which stars Edward Norton as a neo-Nazi skinhead who tries to put his past behind him after being imprisoned for the murder of two black men. After Kaye spent more than a year in post-production and offered no timetable for the film's completion, the studio took back the film with plans to release it as is, prompting Kaye to call the move "a rape, a total abuse of creativity." An initial batch of Kaye ads, taken out in June and apparently directed at New Line, mysteriously quoted the likes of Edmund Burke, John Lennon and Abraham Lincoln. But this week's were far more direct, clearly addressed to co-stars in the film: Edward Furlong, Elliott Gould and Beverly D'Angelo. Representatives for both Furlong and Gould had no comment on the ads Friday, and D'Angelo was out of town and could not be reached.

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You've heard of "an Alan Smithee film." But "a Humpty Dumpty film"? That's what Tony Kaye, director of New Line Cinema's American History X asked the Directors Guild of America to allow him to use as his credit on the movie. Readers may recall that the eccentric British filmmaker has been battling New Line over the pic's final cut. In a rare move, the DGA this week refused Kaye's request to have History designated an Alan Smithee film. Kaye, who recently held hostage some two minutes of negative expected for inclusion in the film but later returned it, then came back saying he wanted his name replaced with "Humpty Dumpty" -- which the DGA also nixed. "Humpty Dumpty is a metaphor for the fall of man and subsequent events," Kaye said. "For me, it is a poetic gesture." Said the film's producer, John Morrissey: "He is going to sue us to have the name Humpty Dumpty on the film? Well, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." New Line still plans to release the film -- with Kaye's name -- on Oct. 30. Unfazed, Kaye has retained attorney Patricia Glaser to get Humpty Dumpty on the credits.

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