Castle Rock books Howard Hughes project
By Michael Fleming
Variety, December 17, 2001
NEW YORK (Variety) - Castle Rock Entertainment has nabbed the rights to "Hughes: The Private Diaries, Letters and Memos," a book that will form the basis for a Howard Hughes movie to star Jim Carrey.
"Memento" director Christopher Nolan will shoot the film and write the script. Carrey stars in Castle Rock's "The Majestic," which opens on Friday.
Author Richard Hack's New Millennium book had stars and studios circling because it was informed by diaries and letters provided by Robert Mahue, a Hughes confidante who is also aboard the project as a consultant and will provide access to other proprietary underlying source material for the project. The bidding battle began last month, when Daily Variety revealed that Carrey and Nolan were chasing the book but were determined to make a Hughes movie together either way.
Just as passionate about the book was Scott Steindorff, a producer with origins in Las Vegas real estate, who engineered a calculated and clever gamble by going directly to New Millennium publisher Michael Viner and optioning the material out from under the noses of studios. Viner conceived the book and set Hack to write it, and the publisher controlled the film rights and had allowed multiple parties to assemble the best package and make the best offer.
Steindorff chased the Hughes rights before the title became a critical sensation and bestseller. He promised Viner a richer deal than was offered by studios, which at the time were hiding their talent attachments.
Once Steindorff sectioned off those rights for his Stone Village Prods. shingle, studio executives found themselves grudgingly dealing for the book's rights through Steindorff's agent, Innovative's Graham Kaye, who became the point person on the deal.
Undeterred were Carrey's reps, who were determined to get the property for Carrey, much as they once nearly pulled off a deal to control rights to Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" before Universal made the deal with producer Imagine Entertainment, and Carrey became that picture's star.
In the deal's early days, it looked as if Carrey-Nolan would be aligned with Universal. But the frenzied activity roused the interest of Castle Rock, which wanted a return date with the actor following "Majestic." The deal will be worth seven figures if the film gets made.
Nolan, who followed "Memento" by directing the Al Pacino/Robin Williams drama "Insomnia," will begin writing the Hughes film immediately. Steindorff will produce with Carrey and Nolan.
The project becomes the latest attempt to mount a Hughes biopic among a list as long as the latter-year Hughes' talons. The most viable rival project is a Hughes picture scripted by "Gladiator" co-writer John Logan for "Ali" director Michael Mann. That picture was expected to star Leonardo DiCaprio, and relocated to New Line from Disney last year.
Elsewhere, Warren Beatty developed a project, while director Milos Forman and Edward Norton climbed aboard another project, which stalled. Another project focuses on "The Hoax," Clifford Irving's book about how he sold a bogus bio of Hughes to McGraw-Hill and served time for the ruse after Hughes alerted the publisher that the story was not his.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
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