Factory Girl: Oscar Material for Sienna Miller?

Unlike the rest of the blogosphere, I like Sienna and hope this movie does well. She's beautiful, talented and the owner of two very sweet dogs.

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That was a promising review, I'm very curious about the movie.

But how funny that you didn't mention the good reviews Guy Pearce and Hayden Christensen got as well, especially since you seem to put quite the engergy in bashing Hayden's acting talent on any given opportunity.

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FACTORY GIRL MAY OR MAY NOT BE GOOD, BAD, OSCAR-WORTHY, GO DIRECT TO DVD, OR SIT ON THE SHELF WITHOUT RELEASE. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE (ESPECIALLY IN A WEINSTEIN DOMINATED WORLD), AND ALL TRUTH WILL EVENTUALLY BE REVEALED. BUT FOR RIGHT NOW THERE IS NO TRAILER AVAILABLE, ON-LINE OR ANYWHERE ELSE, NOR ARE ANY STILLS EVEN BEING RELEASED FOR ANY PURPOSE BY THE DISTRIBUTOR.

YET SOMEHOW, SOMEBODY HAS A ROUGH-CUT OF THIS CONTROVERSIAL MOVIE READILY AVAILABLE FOR SELECTED “FRIENDS” TO VOICE “OPINIONS”. WE WONDER WHO MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE SUCH A ROUGH-CUT AVAILABLE ON A DVD-DISC?

IT'S PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE THAT THIS FILM'S DIRECTOR POSTS REGULARLY ON THIS IMDB BOARD UNDER THE NAME "RODGER O THORNHILL" - HE’S OPENLY ADMITTED THAT.

WE NOTICE THAT "RODGER" POSTED THE JEFFREY WELLS “REVIEW” ON IMDB THE SAME DAY IT HIT THE WEB”?
DIDN'T ANYONE NOTICE THAT JEFFREY WELLS MENTIONS "THE DISC I SAW" AS HIS VIEWING SOURCE OF THE AS-YET-UNSCHEDULED-FOR-RELEASE FACTORY GIRL? OR THAT HALF OF HIS LAUDATORY COMMENTS ARE ATTRIBUTED TO AN UNIDENTIFIED “REVIEW” FROM A “CRITIC FRIEND” OF HIS?

YOU ARE PROMULGATING SOME SKILLFUL PROPAGANDA WORTHY OF GOEBBELS. INADVERTENTLY OR NOT.

IN A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE “HEAR” ABOUT SOMETHING IN SOUND-BYTE FORM, THEN INSTANTLY FORM AN OPINION MORE OFTEN THAN THEY DO BY SEEING OR READING THE ACTUAL SUBJECT MATERIAL ITSELF, THIS WHOLE INSIDER-“REVIEW”-OF-FACTORY-GIRL BUSINESS SMACKS OF BLATANT MANIPULATION. JEFFREY WELLS PROBABLY BELIEVES WHAT HE WRITES, OR THAT WHAT HE WRITES SERVES A GREATER CAUSE OF SOME SORT. BUT WHY DON’T WE ALL JUST WAIT AND SEE WHAT EMOTIONS STICK AROUND AFTER WE ALL GET A CHANCE TO SEE THE FINISHED FILM?

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It is suspected that the preceding comment was written by David Weisman the director of CIAO MANHATTAN. Mr. Weisman has apparently been launching a smear campaign against Mr. Hickenlooper and FACTORY GIRL for the past year. Mr. Weisman had his own competing Edie Sedgwick project which he was unable to get financed. Mr. Weisman also feels he is the sould proprietor of Ms. Sedgwick's memory and that no one else should be able to tell her story. On another note, it is believed that Mr. Weisman used Edie at the lowest point in her life to film CIAO MANHATTAN which may have subsequently contributed to her demise. It is also a known fact that Mr. Weisman has gone out of his way to try to get others, who knew Warhol, to campaign against the FACTORY GIRL film. Most of those associated with Mr. Warhol apparently find Mr. Weisman an unsavory character and in fact have declined to participate in his diatribes. In fact, it is known that former Warhol colleagues such as Gerard Malanga and Brigid Berlin support the FACTORY GIRL film. It is also insulting to both Jeff Wells and Martha Fischer that they are somehow pawns in the FACTORY GIRL publicity machine. The reality is that FACTORY GIRL has no publicity machine and is a low budget, independent film.

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I’m not “Mr Weisman” – my name is Jeremi Handrinos (aka “horus8”). However I was lucky enough to be mentored by David Weisman who, among other things, went out of his way to get me off drugs and steer me towards my potential as writer and artist. The posting of “David Graves” above is a nearly verbatim re-hash of George Hickenlooper’s rant against David Weisman posted quite regularly on Factory Girl Imdb message board and elsewhere by that “independent” film maker’s non-existent publicity machine.

George Hickenlooper first attacked David Weisman in Jessica Hundley’s article “Edie Icon” (MEAN Magazine, Sept-Oct 2005). The publication then allowed Weisman to respond to Hickenlooper; the full text of both their comments is reprinted below with permission.

Ever since this article George Hickenlooper simply cannot get David Weisman’s comments out of his mind. I know the feeling. David is a brilliant and insightful person who does not mince words or suffer fools; his perspective on Factory Girl has always been rather simple: the Factory Girl script is appallingly bad, and that’s that. Weisman’s comments were echoed by Lou Reed in the NY Daily News earlier this year. Coincidentally David Weisman and Lou Reed were in art school together (Syracuse University 1960); They both knew Edie Sedgwick personally as few others did, both created enduring works that will evoke Edie’s memory forever. Anyone confused by this controversy might want to carefully to read the original comments by all three parties: David Weisman and Lou Reed on one hand have only said the script stinks and has nothing whatsoever to do with the Edie Sedgwick they knew, while on the other hand George Hickenlooper and others on his team seem to be bending over backwards to create pre-buzz and “independent film underdog” sympathy for a film nobody except selected “critics” are allowed to see.

HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE 'MEAN MAGAZINE' INTERVIEWS WITH BOTH GEORGE HICKENLOOPER AND DAVID WEISMAN:

SIDEBAR ENTITLED "WILL THE REAL EDIE PLEASE STAND UP?"
(©MEAN MAGAZINE Sept-Oct 2005)

Even three decades after her death, Edie is still ruffling feathers and nabbing headlines. A barrage of angry letters and raised fists, as well as a casting call drama worthy of Page Six, has stymied the production of an upcoming biopic, Factory Girl.

Purportedly the screenplay for the film explores a sexual triangle between Edie, Andy and Bob Dylan, an unholy triumvirate, which, by all accounts, never existed. Said script has elicited much public disdain and legal paperwork on the part of Edie’s friends and compatriots, not to mention a scornful threat to sue from Dylan’s management.

Designated Factory Girl director is George Hickenlooper who co-helmed the 1991 documentary; Hearts of Darkness: A filmmaker’s Apocalypse, with Eleanor Coppola. His most recent film is the 2004 doc, The Mayor of Sunset Strip.

“He’s (Hickenlooper) perfect to direct the film, because he knew nothing about her,” sniffs Paul Morrissey, “and the guy who wrote the script knew nothing about her. They’re the ones who make all the crap. Anyway, what does it matter?”

And meanwhile, the high profile search for a leading lady for Factory Girl has continued, Jude Law’s lady love Sienna Miller, laying claim to the role until recently dropping out of the project. Miller was replaced by Ms. Katie Holmes, who ultimately reneged on the offer, supposedly under orders from fiancée Tom Cruise. Names like Brittany Murphy have been bandied about, but at the moment the project seems to be stymied by political hassles and Hollywood gab. Hickenlooper says of Factory Girl, “It’s the most press I’ve ever gotten for a movie I haven’t made.”

GEORGE HICKEN LOOPER INTERVIEW:

Q: What do you say to the naysayers, the people who knew Edie, who are saying that this script is an aberration that it’s simply not true, that it’s painting a picture that they don’t agree with?

A: I think we should cut to the true slant of this criticism, particularly if its being led by David Weisman, who has deliberately tried to sabotage this project over and over again, because he has his own Edie project he wants to do. He has gone out of his way, before he had read the script or had any access to the script, has gone out of his way to criticize the project. In my opinion, I think, Ciao Manhattan, the film, was an aberration, a real disgrace. I think Mr. Weisman took insidious advantage of Edie Sedgwick at a very vulnerable moment in her life. She was desperate and alone and Weisman found her and allowed her to destroy herself on film for his own advantage. I wouldn’t call that friendship. Secondly, you should talk to Gerard Malanga, Brigid Berlin, Michael Post, Edie’s husband; all of whom like the script and think it really captures the essence of Edie.

Q: But obviously the script is a fictionalized version of her life.

A: In any biographical film, often you have to condensed time; often you have to consolidate characters in order to tell the story in a three-act structure, in order to make the story accessible to audiences. Yes, there are bits of Edie’s life that are fictionalized, but the script captures the true spirit of her character and what she was. You look at any film from The Aviator to Nixon, they all consolidate characters, and you have to. This is not a documentary. This film celebrates Edie Sedgwick’s nature, her enthusiasm, her love for life, and her lust for life, her passion, what she was and how she felt when she arrived in New York and met Warhol. It deals with one year of her life; it doesn’t deal with her downfall, drug-induced spiral into hell. If we can keep true to her spirit, I think we can take a lot of license in terms of making a story that works for a general audience.

Q: How did you get involved in the project in the first place and what made you want to do this film?

A: I met the producer, Holly Wiersma, at the Independent Spirit awards. Two months later we actually sat down. She is a very busy producer. She gave me the script, Factory Girl and it was a really strong story. She gave it to me because I guess she thought thematically it had some parallels to another film I did, Mayor of the Sunset Strip. I read this beautiful story about a girl who is abandoned by her father and constantly is looking for love in all the wrong places. Not dissimilar from Rodney Bingenheimer, (the subject of the Mayor of Sunset Strip), who was abandoned by his mother and was looking for love in the world of celebrity. I saw Rodney as a kind of metaphor for what’s happening with American culture, fragmented culture, looking to celebrity for a fix. Edie was at the cutting edge of that phenomenon. Warhol coined the phrase famous for 15 minutes, after Edie.

Q: How much did you know about her before you read the script?

A: I knew very little about Edie Sedgwick before I read the script. I knew the name, I knew she was associated with Andy Warhol, I knew Rodney Bingheimer had known her. She did some work for Rodney when she was out here in L.A. I think she might have been screwing Jim Morrison at the time. But that really was the extent of my knowledge about Edie. I was really moved by her story, this girl who wanted to be loved, needed to be loved and thematically, it was something similar to the Mayor of the Sunset Strip, but something I could explore on a narrative level. And it called to mind other great films that I loved growing up, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Darling, even little bits of Midnight Cowboy. I always want to make films where the audience can hopefully make a strong visceral connection with the character. And if you look at all my films, they all have tragic endings, but through tragedy you learn about the beauty of life. Edie’s story is very tragic and sad, but there is also something very beautiful about it. Which is why we keep looking back at her as an iconic figure, rather than discarding her as ‘just another junkie’. There’s something about Edie Sedgwick - it’s almost primordial, and it connects to the most fundamental human instincts about life and death and love. And I think that’s what makes her story so compelling and universal and why people keep going back to it over and over again. And this film seems like an opportunity to bring that to the screen.


DAVID WEISMAN INTERVIEW (©MEAN MAGAZINE Sept-Oct 2005)

John Palmer & David Weisman finished Edie's final film Ciao! Manhattan in May 1972. Fourteen years later, Weisman earned an Academy Award Best Picture Nomination for Kiss of the Spider Woman. The film garnered four top Oscar nominations and a Best Actor win for its star, William Hurt. Weisman also produced his pal Paul Morrissey’s last film Spike of Bensonhurst and is currently collaborating with John Palmer on a documentary.

Q: What do you think of the Factory Girl project?

A: John and I knew a complex multi-layered Edie. Telling her story today is a daunting challenge, like adapting a great novel for the screen. Of course half the challenge is who will play Edie, but that’s the second half – the easier half. Get the script right and I guarantee she’ll appear, magically.

Good things can happen with a good script, and vice versa. It’s what Manuel Puig told me when we were adapting his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman: “Anybody can make a bad film from a good script. But nobody can make a good film from a bad script.”


I figured anybody making an Edie Sedgwick movie would at least want a competent script. And so I was bewildered after reading Factory Girl written by someone named Captain Mauzner. It seemed evident the folks who are pushing this project possess an artistic vision based on nothing but a sort of obstinate willful ignorance. It’s as if they’d rather not know what Edie was really like, or what it was like to be in her orbit, because the facts might somehow interfere with their agenda. But I suppose it’s smart nowadays to attach oneself to an ultra-famous celebrity from the past, one who’s not around to squawk or make trouble.

Q: Did you ever tell them your reactions to the script?

Before their Factory Girl press-junket began last Fall, one of the Producers called and began chatting me up, first lavishing praise on Ciao! Manhattan, then asking me what I thought of their script. I said I’d read it carefully and found it appalling because nothing in it had anything whatsoever to do with Edie Sedgwick.

I was amazed the Producer was so proud of having never read the Edie biography because “It’s important to remain clear, and open-minded.” Later, I was privately assured the Producer had actually looked at the pictures and read some of the captions. Anyway, they asked for my opinion and they got it.

Truth is, I was being nice. Their “screenplay” is actually a stream of gibberish superimposed on what these folks must believe is Edie mythology, presumably to fit some sort of generic marketing notions they’ve espoused about “making a story that works for a general audience.”

Mostly, they’re just making it all up. For example Edie wasn’t abandoned by her father as they contend. Before Duke Sedgwick died, I witnessed how deeply obsessed that disturbed man was with his maverick daughter. And as for “consolidating characters” Factory Girl reveals this marvelous “love triangle” between Bob Dylan, Edie, and Andy Warhol. Who knew?

Yes, back then Edie was in love with Bob Neuwirth who hung with Dylan. The biography quotes her from the Ciao Manhattan tapes, “I was Bobby’s sex-slave,” and it refers specifically to Neuwirth, but who cares? For the “very busy producer” of today, Dylan is a so much sexier “Bobby” than Neuwirth for namedropping at pitch-meetings and getting oneself boldfaced on Page Six, or whatever.

They completely miss the specificity of Edie in favor of the cliché, the pre-packaged, the pseudo-hip. Because in a world where all historical context and nuance is paved over by the endless homogenizing intellectual strip-mall of glib log-lines spun for Studio D-girls, everything comes to look like everything else. In Factory Girl, the characters sort of run around and hang out, posing as “metaphors” or “icons” but never behaving as real people.

I heard George Hickenlooper was a Yalie, so it’s hard to believe he believes Factory Girl is “a really strong story.” Maybe he’s reading with one eye cocked toward a gig, any gig. “If you look at all my films,” he boasts, “they all have tragic endings,” then he flip-flops by saying his Edie-flick “deals with one year of her life, (not) her downfall, drug induced spiral into hell.” So if it’s fun happy-face Edie the producers want, George has got it for next Halloween: Edie Sedgwick as a fabulous party-costume with silver hairspray.

Hickenlooper’s “vision” also includes the mind-bending and self-promoting contention that Edie Sedgwick is really the same as Rodney Bingenheimer, and that she once even “did some work for Rodney.” I think if the Edie we knew ever ran across a Rodney Bingenheimer on Sunset Strip, she’d make damn sure she wiped it off her shoe.

Factory Girl is a meal ticket enabling wannabe director and producers to “dine out on Edie Sedgwick” with hot young starlets and their megastar boyfriends. For these folks Edie is little more than a cultural signifier devoid of content, her only significance being to bestow aura on the bland project being hawked.

Consequently Factory Girl robs both Edie and her fans, today’s kids curious enough to try and understand her ethos, because it literally erases Edie’s spiritual and emotional specificity, replacing it with blah clichés from our own diminished moment in time -- a marketing-blitzed zero-attention-span cosmos of cool filled with brand-names like Edie and Andy, where there’s no “there” there anymore.

Doctor Hickenlooper assures us his Edie Sedgwick of Factory Girl will be more than “just another junkie” – but his “vision” represents nothing but a kind of placeholder memorializing the real Edie’s absence. It’s a pity, because she was a great lady, and a very dear friend. But I guess they’ll keep jack-hammering away at her shadow until they land a payday, or she’s been finally expunged from history.

LOU REED'S COMMENTS ON FACTORY GIRL: (©NY Daily News, Jan 23 2006)

‘FACTORY’ FILM ON WARHOL NO WORK OF ART, SAYS REED

Factory Girl' has only just started shooting, but one-time Warhol acolyte Lou Reed is ready with his review: He thinks it stinks.

Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen and Guy Pearce just started filming "Factory Girl," in which Miller plays Andy Warhol's drug-addled muse Edie Sedgwick. But Lou Reed has already formed his opinion of director George Hickenlooper and his cast.

"They're all a bunch of whores," the rock god tells us.

Reed knew Sedgwick, and his band, The Velvet Underground, provided the jagged soundtrack to her 1960s scene. In "Factory Girl," The Velvets are played by the highly regarded indie rockers Weezer. Hickenlooper says that guitarist Brian Bell, as Reed, does a terrific cover of "Heroin." But Reed is far from flattered.

"I read that script," Reed said the other night at a party for his new photo shows at the Hermès boutique and the Steven Kasher Gallery. "It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen — by any illiterate retard — in a long time. There's no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money."

Reed was asked at one point to get involved with the project.

"I wouldn't be part of that," said the rocker. "Just like I wouldn't be part of 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' " Mary Harron's 1996 film about Valerie Solanas' assassination attempt on the artist. "They tried to turn Valerie Solanas into a heroine. They're all a bunch of whores."

Reached on his set in Louisiana, Hickenlooper questioned whether Reed had read the latest script by "Wonderland" writer Captain Mauzner.

"There've been several Edie screenplays over the years," said Hickenlooper. "I adore Lou Reed. I love him for hating my project, which can only bring it more attention. But nobody is making big money on it. We're all working for scale to tell a complex story about a wonderful young woman.

"Lou will be making some money, since we've licensed his song."

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