Word: ovitz
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...year's scathing parody of movie industry manners. Fade in: A Hungarian emigre becomes a hotshot newspaper reporter in the 1960s, reinvents himself as a gonzo journalist and gets the call from Hollywood to write scripts. He clashes with studio heads and Hollywood power brokers, even the awesome Michael Ovitz, but he survives and thrives. As he turns out a succession of sexy, if not particularly smart, screenplays such as Flashdance, Jagged Edge and Basic Instinct, his fee rises to a record-breaking $3 million per script, making him the town's hottest writer...
...share of screenplay credit. Several years later he butted heads with studio executives over the ending of the courtroom drama Jagged Edge. His greatest confrontation came in 1989, when he decided to leave the Creative Artists Agency for rival ICM and, according to Eszterhas, CAA honcho Michael Ovitz threatened to have his "foot soldiers who go up and down Wilshire Boulevard each day . . . blow your brains...
...says one CAA executive of his ICM counterparts, "who steal scripts from one another's desks." The Ovitzites say Berg is ranting and raving to make himself seem like Mike's equal -- an idea they find absolutely absurd. "I will not be intimidated by the threat of failure," says Ovitz, with uncharacteristic heat, "or coerced by that kind of talk. I will do what I have...
...Ovitz that means continuing to push the boundaries of what a Hollywood talent agency does. On his telephone is a sign that reads, COMMUNICATE! And early each morning, he slips on a high-tech headset, plugs the extralong cord into that phone and spends the next 12 hours working his relationships, cajoling, brokering, turning that exhortation into new ways of making money...
...rare interview, Michael Ovitz defends his power...