Where do the great movies originate? Ted Sarandos and his team asked the question of select filmmakers in the area when Netflix first started producing its own shows a decade earlier. It was a smart exercise – but most respondents insisted there was no answer.
Coincidentally I’d been putting out that question at various times over the years with equally ambiguous results. Saul Zaentz (feisty music and film producer) once provided this response: “Great movies come from terrible people who fight you every step of the way and make your life miserable.”
Misery or not, Zaentz’s indie company managed to produce three Best Picture winners over the years and his music company earned millions from Creedence Clearwater Revival. Never part of Hollywood’s corporate structure, Zaentz and his achievements are a reminder of the banner times in the indie era — from Samuel Goldwyn to John Heyman, Dino De Laurentiis and Francis Coppola. Don Rugoff was an indie producer and exhibitor during that time, which made him a key player in filmmaker careers, including those of Martin Scorsese and Ingmar Bergman.
Corporate Hollywood was known for finding ways to co-exist and feed from these mavericks. However, their numbers have steadily declined over the years. Today’s version of the indie innovator is more akin to the Peter Chernin model; last week, Chernin unveiled an amalgam of financial deals that should mobilize some $800 million in equity and debt financing.
According to him, the product would be “premium content,”Many of it is targeted at the international market, although details are still to be revealed. Chrenin’s deal follows recent announcements of the $725 million SpringHill deal (LeBron James is involved) and a $760 million Legendary deal and a $900 million Hello Sunshine deal (Reese Witherspoon).
Chernin, now 71, is the opposite of a Zaentz-like persona: Cautious, calculating, Chernin was Fox’s CEO during Rupert Murdoch’s era. He, like Murdoch rarely expressed a passion for any film or filmmaker. Chernin’s official biography suggests credit for Titanic AvatarHowever, when production delays or financial shortfalls were in dispute, media inquiries were directed at lower-ranking executives. Murdoch was my friend at an important Fox screening. I asked him his opinion about the film. “Ask Chernin – he gives his ‘no opinion’ line faster than I.”
Ultimately the question surrounding all of these deals, including Chernin’s, relates back that stressful “great movie” issue. Is this the funding that will allow creatives to create compelling content? Although this question may seem contradictory, Zaentz believes that the rhetoric does not resemble a mission statement or point of view.
Zaentz was a muscular, bushy-white man with a thick white beard. He was always willing to debate and had his own opinion about everything. After starting his career in the music industry, he managed tours for Stan Getz and Duke Ellington, before signing groups such as CCR, fronted John Fogerty.
The Zaentz/Fogerty Association sparked a lot of music and litigation. Fogerty even made a hit record with the lyrics. “Zaentz can’t dance but he can steal.”
Zaentz produced movies with great passion that reflected his vast intellect and adventurous spirit. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, The English Patient The Mosquito Coast. His films’ titles suggested his breadth. The unbearable lightness of being At Play in the Fields of the Lord.
My interactions with Zaentz were both exuberant, and combative. As Michael Douglas, his Cuckoo’s NestHe was co-producer. “Saul was all about courage – the courage of the great idea and also to see it through.”
Zaentz would love for Zaentz to have learned how navigate the huge deals being announced today. However, he would have been shocked by the emphasis on streaming. Sarandos might have asked him about the origins of great movies, and he would likely have smiled at him. “They come from me. Count on it.”