Word: gering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Coppola and fellow screen writers Mario Puzo and William Kennedy present a mixture of fact and fiction as they center their story on Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere), a coronet player, who becomes entangled in racketeering riff-raff after he saves the life of arch- mobster Dutch Schultz. The Dutchman hires Dyers to entertain his mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), and the two, unfortunately for the Dutchman fall in love. Vera, however, sticks with the mobster because of his promise to buy her her own nightclub. Meanwhile back at the ranch. Dixie's brother Vince becomes embroiled in New York...
...acting is uniformly remarkable, given the dramatic quicksand in which the cast is drowning. Richard Gere avoids getting by on his gooooooood looks and instead makes the most of his dramatic moments playing a good kid shocked and fascinated at the dirty dealings of the underworld. Diane Lane just the right mix of street-survivor and sensitivity, making her an inspiring and sympathetic character...
...millions, and even a couple of new stars-Richard Gere and Gregory Hines-but Puzo's script wasn't working. Enter Francis Coppola. He had once made a movie called The Godfather, from Puzo's novel, with Evans overseeing the production, and they all made pots of money. But now Coppola was deep in debt and willing to write Cotton Club for $250,000. Coppola loved his script; Evans thought it read like a PBS documentary. And so, while casting continued for roles that hardly existed and sets were built in a Queens studio...
...here, my children, is where things went from chaos to crisis. The first week of shooting, Gere refused to show up until he had a contract. As costs ballooned, money ran short. Seven weeks into shooting, in a contract dispute with Evans, Coppola walked off the set and flew to Europe; the cast and crew missed their paychecks and refused to work until they were paid in cash. And in exchange for a quick $15 million from the film's distributor, Orion Pictures, Evans relinquished his control over the movie. By the spring of 1984, Evans was suing everybody...
...cast of the courtroom drama includes Coppola, Producer Robert Evans and Investors Fred and Edward Doumanl and Victor Sayyah, who have been waging a bitter back-lot struggle for control of the way-over-budget ($58 million in all, some say) Harlem jazz-era epic with Richard Gere, Diane Lane and Gregory Nines. Says Evans of Coppola, in one reported sample of the prevailing civility: "He has as much respect for money as I do for Gaddafi." Waving aside intimations of drug abuse and gangland connections, Judge Hill left Evans in charge but gave final authority over post-production decisions...