Producer sues over Hughes pictureBy Janet Shprintz
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Producer Charles Evans Jr., the nephew of Hollywood veteran Robert Evans, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was ousted him from his own project, a motion picture based on the life of Howard Hughes.
His complaint, filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court, targets movie studio New Line Cinema, management firm Artists Management Group (AMG) and director Michael Mann.
The suit says Evans had been developing a film project based on the life of Hughes since 1993. In 1997, Evans began discussions with Kevin Spacey about serving as a director. Spacey also agreed to assist Evans in finding financing.
Shortly thereafter, Evans and Spacey met with production company New Regency, which agreed to assist in the development of the project. Spacey agreed to direct and Jack Fincher (father of ``Seven'' director David) was hired to draft a screenplay.
In 1998, Evans attempted to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to play the part of Hughes, according to the lawsuit. Following discussions with DiCaprio and AMG principal Rick Yorn, who represents the actor, Evans was informed that DiCaprio would never make the project with a director he hadn't selected.
Evans finally decided to terminate Spacey, and Yorn advised him DiCaprio was in. Yorn then told Evans DiCaprio wanted Michael Mann (''The Insider'') as the director and further discussions ensued. John Logan (''Gladiator'') was hired by Mann to do a screenplay.
After many months of believing Mann and DiCaprio were planning to do the Hughes film at New Regency with him, Evans learned last March that Mann had made a deal with New Line to do a Hughes project.
The complaint alleges fraud, breach of implied contract and intentional interference with economic advantage.
New Line declined to comment and AMG could not be reached for comment.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
Spacey Putting His Money Where His Heart Has Been
November 28, 2000
By ROBIN POGREBIN
How many times have smitten theatergoers wished they could whip out a
checkbook and bail out a struggling show or a failing theatrical
company? The feeling has struck Kevin Spacey quite a bit lately,
and unlike most of his fellow ticketholders he has acted on it.
This month his money helped finance a commercial production of Lee
Blessing's 1989 play "Cobb" at the Lucille Lortel Theater, which
began on Nov. 8. Last spring he put up enough money how much he
would not say to allow the Off Broadway revival of "Cobb" to
continue running another two weeks when it was on the verge of
closing.
Last summer Mr. Spacey put up his own money to help the Old Vic in
London where his recent production of "The Iceman Cometh"
originated get a new lease on life when it was in danger of going
under.
And he is in discussions with his alma mater, the Juilliard
School, about setting up a scholarship in his name for acting
students.
Hollywood actors are increasingly returning to the stage these
days, whether to burnish their r sum s or to give back to where
they started. But few of them are using their financial success to
act as theatrical producers or philanthropists. Certainly, Mr.
Spacey's recent financial efforts make for good public relations,
but as one of Hollywood's hottest actors he hardly needs the lift,
and there are probably better ways to get one than by helping an
obscure nonprofit theater company or an institution that however
venerable is a continent away.
So why is he bothering? Mr. Spacey, 41, said that no matter how
large a factor film had become in his career, he was committed to
maintaining his connection with the stage. "This has been my whole
life, my primary allegiance," he said.
Mr. Spacey, who stars in the film "Pay It Forward" and won the
best-actor Oscar in March for his portrayal in "American Beauty,"
said the roots of his beneficence were planted before he did his
first major film, "The Usual Suspects," in 1995.
In the early 1980's, for example, he said, he went to Mamaroneck,
N.Y., to teach acting to public school students. "It's not like I
suddenly said, `Gee, what am I going to do with all this money?' "
he said.
And he said that as long as he continued to make movies, he would
also perform in plays, both as an actor and as a producer.
"I think it's unfortunate that people use theater as a stepping
stone to film and then they don't come back," he said. "I never
viewed it that way. It is a solid rock on which I'm happy to stand.
If I step forward, maybe others will. Anybody who wants to try it,
the water's fine."
Mr. Spacey said he was motivated in part by cutbacks in many
school arts programs. He said these programs had been a great help
to him as a student. That is why, he said, he offered blocks of $20
student tickets at every performance of "Iceman" on Broadway, which
he helped produce, even though the show was booked for a 16-week,
sold-out run with a top ticket price of $100, the third show in
Broadway history to charge that much for a seat (after "Nicholas
Nickleby" and "Miss Saigon").
The actor said he had helped other theaters before though he
declined to mention which ones but those efforts did not receive
the same kind of attention as his effort for "Cobb." He also said
he was not concerned that New York City's many struggling nonprofit
theaters would suddenly start begging him to help them, too.
The most fruitful theatrical financing is generally a product of
an organic, slowly building connection between a troupe and its
audience, he said. He said he had, however, looked at other
requests. "Sometimes it's quite beautiful, and sometimes it's quite
strange that you get letters from people asking you to put them
through medical school," he said.
His interest in "Cobb" came from going to see the play about the
baseball player Ty Cobb because an understudy from "Iceman,"
Matthew Mabe, was playing the title role. Joe Brancato, who
directed the play, said the night that Mr. Spacey came was a stormy
one. "With a clap of thunder," Mr. Brancato said, "he enters."
The director sounded as if he still had not gotten over the
experience. "I feel like I should be in some theater novel," Mr.
Brancato said.
Mr. Spacey said his contribution was "completely spontaneous": he
liked the production, put on by the Melting Pot Theater Company in
April, and decided to support it. "I just felt, gosh, this is
exactly the kind of theater that I want to encourage, a nonprofit
company with ambitious plans," Mr. Spacey said. "Maybe I can help
out and at least get people out to see it.
"It's time that Off Broadway be recognized as a major force in the
theater in New York City. That's where much of the great work is
coming from."
Larry Hirschhorn, artistic director of the Melting Pot, which has
a budget of $300,000, said he received a call from Mr. Spacey. "He
said: `You can't close it, it's too good. How much would it cost to
keep open?' " Mr. Hirschhorn said. "I told him, and I got a check
the next day."
Mr. Hirschhorn said Mr. Spacey asked him for a list of important
people who had not come to see the play, each of whom Mr. Spacey
proceeded to call himself. "I don't even know the guy," Mr.
Hirschhorn said.
When he was growing up in California he was born in South
Orange, N.J. his middle-class family used to travel to London to
see theater and often visited the Old Vic, which gave birth to the
National Theater and the Royal Opera and Ballet. When he was trying
to decide where to take "Iceman," someone suggested the
182-year-old Old Vic, which was in danger of being turned into a
shopping mall, a bingo parlor or a nightclub for lap-dancing. "When
I stepped onto that stage, I knew in less than two seconds that was
the place we belonged, a theater that's just made for actors," Mr.
Spacey said.
Last summer, at Mr. Spacey's urging, the theater offered public
shares in an effort to raise $1 million for Old Vic Productions, a
company set up to finance plays and other theatrical events mainly
for the Old Vic.
That financial mark was reached in three weeks, said Mr. Spacey,
who himself acknowledged contributing "a significant amount of
money." (The Financial Times reported the figure at an estimated
£500,000, or about $700,500.)
Old Vic Productions will be run by Sally Greene, who led the
rescue campaign for the Old Vic in 1998 when its previous owners,
the Mirvish catering family of Toronto, gave up on supporting the
theater with no subsidy.
Ms. Greene, who also heads the Old Vic Trust, which saved the
building by buying it for £3.5 million (about $4,905,000), has
assembled a board, including Dame Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons, Lord
Richard Attenborough and David Suchet. Mr. Spacey is to be a
consultant.
This new team seeks to establish a repertory company at the
theater an effort attempted previously and unsuccessfully by Sir
Peter Hall which is probably going to be led by Stephen Daldry,
the former artistic director of the Royal Court who is also on the
Old Vic board.
The investors in the Old Vic get tax advantages as well as the
potential of dividends down the line. And for the first time, Mr.
Spacey said, the historic theater, known for presenting serious
drama like Shakespeare and actors like Laurence Olivier and Alec
Guinness, is making a profit on shows like "Amadeus," "The Vagina
Monologues" and Matthew Bourne's "Car Man."
In September Mr. Spacey contributed $100,000 to the actors' strike
fund, prompting several other movie stars to make contributions.
(In rallies in New York City and Los Angeles, stars like Paul
Newman, Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon threw their support behind the
many lesser-known actors locked in a dispute over pay rates for
commercials.) Mr. Spacey said his hope in contributing money was to
get others to kick in. "Within three and a half weeks, we raised
over $1 million because a great number of my fellow actors stepped
forward," Mr. Spacey said. "It shows sometimes you can start
something that becomes a snowball. I didn't throw down a challenge;
I threw down a suggestion."
He said he had also been taking part in meetings with others in
Hollywood to try to head off the expected standoff between actors
and the film studios and television networks this spring. He said
he had no plans to raise additional money for the strike fund, as
it was "quite healthy" now.
Mr. Spacey said he believed the health of the theater depended in
part on people in film acknowledging its importance.
"If there's any good that can come out of my success in film, it
is as a magnet for other actors considering a return to the stage
and for those that have never tried it to give it a shot," he said.
"People don't know the value of it how it teaches you and shapes
you.
"One day I'll fall over on the stage. That's how I'll go."
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