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Hanson, David Fincher and Bryan Singer among those passing on the project.
“It ended up getting five million dollars in pre-production costs,” says Clooney, who was attached just as an actor. “Then it was put into turnaround. I thought that if I grabbed it and did it for scale, and got everybody else to do it for scale, then we could get the film made for way under what it was budgeted at. So my pitch to Harvey Weinstein was to tell him how I wanted to make the film, my aesthetic of it – and that I could make it ten million cheaper than anyone else.”
He stuck out for Sam Rockwell, rather than a star name, to play Barris. They’d met when Clooney was playing a small role in Welcome To Collinwood, an appearance to help to raise the money for a film on which he and Soderbergh were producers.
Directing wasn’t always what he expected. “All the things a director goes through, I thought I could shortcut a few of them. But there was no getting around those issues,” he says. “I have a golf club I left stuck in the wall in my office at Warner Bros.
When, after two months of screen tests and everything, I still wasn’t able to get Sam for a while, I slammed it into the wall. I put a date on it, and left it hang- ing there.
“There are a lot of difficulties when people are going to invest the kind of money it takes to make a film. I understand that,
and was willing to play by all those rules. I kept thinking, ‘this should be easier’. It was frustrat- ing, but we got it made.”
Clooney never saw Solaris as a blockbuster, but is clearly disap- pointed with the poor reception in America. Even the prospect of seeing Gorgeous George’s naked bottom failed to help tick- et sales. As far as he’s concerned that line of publicity backfired. “It’s not a big action film with naked people, which is how it was sold in the States,” he says.
“I understand why it hap- pened. It was unfortunate because it forced me to do three days of press junkets where every question was, ‘did you work out?’. It trivialised what we were trying to do in the film. That’s too bad. What we’re trying to do is push the envelope a little bit. It was just circumstances, being rushed out and the studio was confused with test marketing.”
Bad box-office is good news for those awaiting a sequel to hit crime caper Ocean’s 11, as the start date has been brought for- ward to early next year. His pro- duction company had two other films in line to proceed first.
“Solaris bombed so we moved Ocean’s 12 up a bit because we couldn’t get the other two films made otherwise,” he says candidly.
Screenplay development and training
EDeN: The European Development Network Creative development for feature-length film and television fiction
EDeN is a programme of workshops for anyone involved in the develop- ment of feature-length fiction projects for film and television. Supported by the MEDIA PLUS PROGRAMME of the European Community, the pro- gramme looks at the creative aspects of development as a coherent process in which teamwork is essential – from the moment that an idea is con- ceived, right through to pre-production. It covers the skills and knowledge needed by producers, directors, screenwriters, script editors, script readers, and development executives.
Starting in June, the duration of the programme is six months, including three week-long workshops.
For further information and application packs please contact:
Draft Zero
Medius House (LG Floor) 2 Sheraton Street London W1F 8BH
T +44 (0)870 366 6966 F +44 (0)7092 371 565 E info@draftzero.com www.draftzero.com
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