Off-Centerpiece : What You’d See if ‘Naked Hollywood’ Was Totally Nude
LONDON — The producer of the BBC documentary “Naked Hollywood†calls it an act of censorship. Paramount Studios says it merely honored a request from two producers who made films there.
Whatever the case, the result is that American TV viewers will be shortchanged one episode of the six-part “Naked Hollywood,†about the inner workings of the movie business, when Arts and Entertainment cable starts broadcasting the series next Sunday.
Gone is the segment “Good Cop, Bad Cop,†which focused on two sets of producer-partners: Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and Lynda Obst and Debra Hill. The segment, which aired in Britain earlier this year, relies heavily on clips from films Simpson and Bruckheimer made at Paramount, including “Top Gun,†“Beverly Hills Cop†and “Days of Thunder.â€
The BBC originally paid only to license the clips for use in the United Kingdom. But when A&E; said it wanted to air the “Good Cop†segment, in addition to the five others, the BBC tried to negotiate licensing for use in the United States. The BBC was told, however, that the film snippets would not be made available to them at any price.
“We were asked by Simpson and Bruckheimer not to license the film clips,†said Harry Anderson, VP of corporate communications at Paramount. “We simply responded as a courtesy to the producers. For us, it was an administrative kind of thing. We’re not making a statement about this miniseries.â€
“It’s disappointing to see Paramount take this action,†said “Naked†producer Nicolas Kent. Although Kent hasn’t spoken to Simpson and Bruckheimer about their reasons, he assumes they were not pleased with their portrayal in the segment.
Simpson, reached at his new office at the Disney Studios, said he didn’t want to comment publicly about the clips or the documentary. “Haven’t seen the show and don’t intend to,†he said.
As a service to disappointed film buffs, here, in a fast-forward and slightly edited form, is the missing segment:
“NAKED HOLLYWOODâ€
“Good Cop, Bad Cop.â€
Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson are being interviewed. Bruckheimer says, “Well, I think that when Don described me and I kind of described him you could see it’s right brain, left brain kind of thinking. Both of us have the opposite hemisphere working in a higher efficiency than the other side.â€
Lynda Obst and Debra Hill sit in their office. Obst: “We’re yin and yang.†Hill: “Yeah.†Obst: “And the whole becomes larger than the sum of its parts.â€
Fast cuts of Simpson and Bruckheimer movies show cars crashing and Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop,†firing his gun and diving down a staircase.
John Powers, L.A. Weekly film critic, says, “A Simpson and Bruckheimer movie is a very simple-minded, rather stupid movie that people would have been ashamed to make 50 years ago.†Scene from S&B;’s “Flashdance†in which water comes pouring down on a dancer onstage.
Simpson and Bruckheimer stand in front of a TV monitor watching “Top Gun†and discuss whether Exocet missiles are fired from air or sea. Conclusion: both. Simpson is wearing skintight blue jeans and a heavy motorcycle jacket. Larry Ferguson, screenwriter of “Beverly Hills Cop,†says that when he went to work for S&B;, a director who had worked for them previously asked if he had a bulletproof vest.
On a racetrack location for “Days of Thunder,†which ultimately fared poorly at the box office, S&B; discuss setting up a scene. Instrumental version of “Take My Breath Away†from the “Top Gun†soundtrack comes on while a message scrolls along the bottom of the screen saying that in February 1990 Simpson and Bruckheimer signed the biggest deal producers have ever made with a studio, Paramount.
Voiceover reads copy from ads that appeared in the trades and newspapers about the deal: “Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer are total filmmakers.â€
Charles Fleming of Weekly Variety reveals that, although the two producers claimed that Paramount insisted on placing the ads, the studio resisted strongly and Simpson and Bruckheimer had to foot a sizable chunk of the advertising bill.
Tony Scott, director of “Top Gun,†says he originally envisioned “Top Gun†as a much darker film, while Simpson and Bruckheimer wanted a “popcorn movie.†“In hindsight,†he says, “they were right and I was wrong.â€
Simpson recalls that, at one point during filming of “Top Gun,†Scott was ready to pay the Navy $150,000 to turn a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier around because the lighting would be better. The producers stopped him.
Powers of the L.A. Weekly: “Although they’ve had famous directors work for them, all their films tend to look the same. I suspect the more ideas and vision you have, the more difficult it would be to work for them.â€
Scott says he almost got fired from “Top Gun†because he wanted to make Kelly McGillis look whorish. Simpson says they based McGillis’ Navy flight instructor role on a real woman. “She had a degree in astrophysics--and she had good legs.â€
Lynda Obst and Debra Hill describe how they first teamed up. Washington Post reporter Kim Masters says that Obst and Hill haven’t had much commercial success, but they have the ability to get pictures made, which counts for a lot in Hollywood.
Obst and Hill describe how they came across the script of “Fisher King,†the story of a radio talk show host who falls in with a band of homeless people, and how they fell in love with it and set it up with Tri-Star within 24 hours. “I laughed, I cried, I had to go on an errand and I couldn’t stop reading the script,†says Obst.
Terry Gilliam, hired to direct “Fisher King†following his monstrously overbudget “Baron Munchausen†(scroll at bottom of screen says “Original budget: $23 million. Final cost: $48 million), says he wanted to salvage his career. “My reputation was as a guy who makes films that go out of control.â€
Debra Hill: “He wants himself to be redeemed. He wants to come in on budget.†Hill and Obst are anxious to let Gilliam--whom they term a “genius of a manâ€-- place his personal stamp on the movie. But they will be watching carefully for signs of overindulgence.
Simpson says that the first movie he ever saw, circa age 5, was “The Greatest Show on Earth.†He told his mother he wouldn’t leave the theater unless they changed the ending.
Scenes of intense activity on the New York location of “Fisher King.†Gilliam has decided to add a fantasy sequence in which a thousand people waltz across Grand Central Station at rush hour. “It was just a little thing that came to me and now it’s in the script,†he says, impishly. Michael Cieply, then of the Los Angeles Times, calls “Baron Munchausen†the “classic runaway film.â€
Bruckheimer, discussing ‘the inspiration for “Beverly Hills Cop,†claims he was once pulled over by a policeman in Beverly Hills merely because--he quotes the officer --â€you don’t look like you belong here.†Simpson says he can read upside down. “It’s a tool of the executive warrior trade--you learn to steal information from wherever you can,†he says. Simpson says that when selling the idea for the “Top Gun†film to Navy brass, he told them it would be about “frankly, the most important warrior we have.†(He meant fighter pilots, not executive warriors.)
Obst and Hill attend a budget meeting--it’s clear their film is starting to go over budget and behind schedule.
Bruckheimer, on the “Days of Thunder†racetrack location, says they’ve crashed about 65 cars so far. Director Tony Scott says a rushed production schedule fouled things up. Cieply says that S&B; become so involved in making their movies, that there is “almost no escape hatch from the responsibility†when things go wrong.
Cut to Variety headline saying that S&B;’s unprecedented production deal with Paramount has been terminated. Simpson says, “We’re really looking forward to new horizons.†Fleming says Paramount changed its ideas about the kind of pictures it wanted to make after watching the success of much cheaper films like “Ghost†and “Pretty Woman.†Bruckheimer notes that after a certain kind of movie hits it big, Hollywood always makes a slew of clones that fail. “And,†he says, “if they start making a bunch of ‘Ghosts’--guess what? They’re going to fail too.â€
Obst says that the movie market is becoming more sophisticated. Hill says that “Fisher King†is back on budget because they cut out some special effects and saved some money in post-production. She thinks Gilliam “is going to be redeemed with this picture.â€
Simpson and Bruckheimer stand in front of TV monitor showing an aircraft carrier in “Top Gun.†Simpson says that the ultimate reward of being a filmmaker is seeing the audience “sharing the emotion you experienced during the making of the movie.†Bruckheimer says that after all the pain and tribulations of making a film, “you have this one moment where chills go up your spine. It’s all worth it.â€
Simpson: “It’s really us living the life of the characters there on the deck.â€
Bruckheimer: “With the audience.â€
Simpson: “With the audience.â€
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