Results tagged “WHAT JUST HAPPENED” from Birmingham Mail - Mega Movies

FURTHER to my interview feature with Robert De Niro in today's Birmingham Mail, here's one that didn't make the cut.

It features the thoughts of Art Linson, the Hollywood producer whose memoirs inspired their new film together, What Just Happened.

ROBERT De Niro's reputation for being 'difficult' often comes before him.

But you surely can't win six Oscar nominations or make as many films as he has without enjoying a collaborative spirit.

Driven to succeed for sure, his primary aim is to focus on his work and let the results speak for themselves on screen.

To that extent, his visit to London was an ultra-rare chance to find out what really makes him tick.

Film distributors Pathe had other ideas - partnering him with writer-producer Art Linson on the press merry-go-round.

As you'd expect, for a man charged with constantly trying to fund different projects, Linson is the one with the gift of the gab.

The more he talks, the more you just know that having a minder in tow means De Niro has the perfect excuse not to open up.

But Linson is an interesting chaperone, even telling a story which his star hadn't heard before.

"When we screentested Goodfellas, one third of the audience walked out," he reveals.

"Test audiences are often right. And they are often wrong.

"Sometimes they'll be so upset by a film they can't bring themselves to say they've liked it.

"Yet when it goes on release they'll go to see it again and still feel the same way!"

What Art won't do is name names when it comes to revealing the source of his film's comedy.

"That would make it too specific even though I don't see this as biting the hand that feeds," he says.

"I don't really like to recall the pain of making movies - it must be like childbirth for women.

"My first movie really bombed and one producer said to me: 'I don't understand why anybody would want to make a movie like that'.

"Everybody is good at success (if they don't go overboard) and knows how to handle good news.

"You never leave Hollywood. It leaves you.

"It was a very hard beginning and that continues throughout your career, but my associate producer was Jerry Bruckheimer and he's done all right.

"In today's harsh economic climate, I think Hollywood will continue to do well - people always want to be entertained."

JUST back from London where I met Robert De Niro today.

Fancy that!

Great to see Mr Focker looking so fit and well and with a big, cheeky grin on his face.

The days of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull seem a long time ago.

But, after some of his recent efforts, it's still good to watch him back to form with his new movie, What Just Happened? which is out on November 28.

Look out for my interview in the Birmingham Mail on or before then at a date tbc.

Meanwhile, one of my first jobs in the morning will be to announce who's won the Priceless DVDs...

AFTER I went on a movie bender at the beginning of month and saw 16 movies over a long weekend I wrote the following on October 5 about a new film called What Just Happened...

"Great to see Robert De Niro back on real form. Can't believe director Barry Levinson is, too. After the likes of An Everlasting Piece (2000), this is the first decent movie he's made since Wag The Dog in 1997."

Even Capt Bob must be thinking the same - for the first time in years he must be really chuffed with his work.

Waiting for me in my email inbox at work today was a personal invitation to meet screen legend Robert De Niro next month in good time for the (delayed) opening of What Just Happened at the end of November.

Any questions about Robert De Niro you'd like to know the answer to?

+ By the way, as part of the Film Education brief I've written about several times recently including last night, I really enjoyed discussing a little known German/Turkish film called The Edge of Heaven today with pupils from King Edward's (boys and girls wings from Edgbaston) and Bishop Challoner in Kings Heath.

It was a challenging, subtitled two-hour film in more ways than one, so it was as interesting for me to seek the opinions of the next generation as I hope it was for the students to learn more about my kind of work.

In these situations, it's particularly fantastic when you have what I call a 'lightbulb' moment, when you go away thinking that you've fired somebody else up with your own enthusiasm.

Touch wood, every year there's at least always one.

This time I have to say full marks to Ivan for coming up to me just out of the cinema eager to ask some intelligent questions in a bid to learn more.

Ivan was soon joined by several equally inquisitive friends who bombarded me with good questions.

He might not know it yet, but Ivan has already got what it takes to do really well for himself - in whatever he chooses to do.

In contrast, I despair every year when teachers from Edgbaston's George Dixon International School use the end credits as cover in order to (politely) waltz their pupils straight out of the screening under the excuse they 'need to go back for their lunch'.

A couple of years ago, this kind of unexpected antic removed most of the children from the end of a screening that I had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare for.

And not only me, but a Birmingham Professor, too, who was going to help discuss the geographical implications of The Day After Tomorrow.

I was really angry that the children had lost a good opportunity to possibly learn a few things from a leading academic, as well as someone (me) who has had the good fortune to see at first hand what makes some of the world's most successful people tick.

Luckily, the pupils from King Eds and Bishop C were the bulk of my audience this year and it was good to see so many of them were as keen as mustard to make the most of a rare trip out of school.

In future, I recommend that the George Dixon lot bring a packed lunch to eat on the bus.

Or, better still, that they don't sign up for 'my' film so that the children don't feel as if they might be losing out.

Once an opportunity is gone, it's gone. End of.