factory girl Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means -- time for The Write Stuff! This week Cinematical spoke with screenwriter Captain Mauzner. Mauzner has an interesting perspective on screenwriting because he's written two major films based on true events and actual people. He co-wrote 2003's Wonderland -- the story of the infamous "Wonderland Murders," which starred Val Kilmer as legendary porn star John Holmes. And he wrote last year's Factory Girl, the tale of Edie Sedgwick (played by Sienna Miller), Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), and a Dylanesque "Musician" played by Hayden Christensen. We spoke about Mauzner's scripts, process, and the trickiness of writing scripts based on fact.

Cinematical: Are you working on anything right now?

Captain Mauzner: I am working on something right now, yeah. I'm adapting a book. It's a small book, it's called The Food Chain, by Geoff Nicholson. A friend of mine runs a small company and I'm adapting it with the hopes of directing it. It's kind of about food, sex, and cannibalism. Revenge, food, sex, and cannibalism.

Cinematical: Well, alright!

CM: It's a little dark comedy. It's fun. And what was nice about it was -- I've written so many things and a lot of them are true life stories, and they all seem to be about kind of deplorable human beings. And I think that my comfort zone is really kind of in the dark side -- the drug addicts, the deviants. And I think that as I've kind of gotten older and left that world myself, I guess you could say I've become less and less interested in it. You see these movies like Wonderland and Factory Girl and you could say "oh, they're like an argument against doing drugs." But I know for myself, there's always a glamorizing element to it. And as much as you want to say this is the downfall of these people, which it is -- and obviously there's nothing glamorous about the drug lifestyle, or the party lifestyle because it does lead to bad things. But just the act of writing about it or making these the main characters or trying to explain these people, I feel like that somewhat glamorizes it, or at least in my mind it was very glamorous. I had a very romantic notion, at like 14-years-old I discovered Bukowski and I was kind of off to the races. So I think that as I get older I'm ready to move on to maybe something light and happy. My family's always like "Why can't you write something that we can take Grandma to?"

Cinematical: So do you find when you're writing about drugs and debauchery, that you're not looking to condemn it and point a finger, you're just looking to present it and let the audience decide?

CM: Absolutely. I'm not looking to condemn it at all. I'm not looking to be moral about it. I believe in experimentation. I believe in doing kind of what you want and not having anybody else tell you what to do. I think that my fascination with it is always the "why." Why do people do this? I think that's kind of the fun of being able to do those kind of things is that you can live kind of vicariously through these people, and try to figure out the "why" without being judgmental.

Viewing George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl a second time on the DVD which will be released Tuesday, my opinion has gone up a few notches. It's not so much because the restored material -- a few snippets -- does a great deal to let the movie breathe. Instead, I found myself reading between the lines of the insightful director's commentary, in which Hickenlooper takes pains to point out to the viewer exactly which parts of the movie were the results of his original cut, and which parts were introduced at the whim of Harvey Weinstein. Invariably, it's the Weinstein-mandated changes that slow the movie down and make it sometimes seem commonplace and uninspired. (Hickenlooper is carefully to say how great the Weinstein-changes were, even as he's dutifully pointing them out.) One big problem is the 'Warhol montage' near the beginning that takes great pains to point out to us that there was a guy named Andy Warhol who was a great pop artist of the late 20th century -- as if anyone in the film's audience wouldn't know that.

Another unwelcome element is the Gia-like 'Edie in a mental hospital' bookends -- a drastic stylistic departure from the fast-paced, Oliver Stone-like cutting rhythm of the rest of the film. A lot of exposition is proffered during these moments, but to what end? Do we really need to know more about Edie's homelife than we've already learned during the A-story? I don't think so. There are a few other Weinstein-elements scattered throughout, and having seen the film twice now, I think we can conclude two things: Hickenlooper is a genuine talent who made a good film under unbearable pressures and he would have made a substantially better one if not for the heavy-handed studio honcho standing on his head. His visual chops are, while a little too close to his admitted mentor, Oliver Stone, still very sharp. He has a masterful knowledge of camera minutia and spends much time during his commentary talking about how he chose certain camera grains and lenses in order to complement the tone of a particular scene.

Simon Hattenstone, the journalist for The Guardian who recently sat down to talk with Sienna Miller, claims to feel "manic by proxy" just from talking to her, "as if I'm caught up in a sugar rush." In a fascinating, no-holds-barred interview published today, Miller opens up about every topic in her life, including the long and complex process of getting Factory Girl to the big screen. "After I'd been researching it for a year I had this way of talking and this way of laughing, this way of smoking, this way of dancing, this whole character that you've worked on, and then it's like 'It's a wrap, bye, guys, bye,' and you're like 'Eeeeugh, what do I do with it, what do I do now?" Miller also denies rumors that she took on Edie Sedgwick's destructive habits. "I didn't up my drug intake, if that's what you're implying. Edie shot up amphetamine and shot up heroine to come down off amphetamine and that's serious drug-taking, and look where it got her."

Nevertheless, she claims that "I took a morphine pill, just to feel what a safe way of taking heroine was like." When the interviewer ponders aloud why so many people are drawn to drugs, Miller blurts out "Cos' they're fun! Cos' they're f**kloads of fun! No, don't write that. I always end up putting my big fat foot in it." She also claims to enjoy the "odd hallucinogenic drug. I liked mushrooms, which were legal until a year or so ago." Her favorite vice, however, is smoking, which she endorses. "I love them. Love them. I think the more positive approach you have to smoking, the less harmful it is. I know it's an irresponsible thing to say, but I do know people who are 86 and smoked 60 a day and died of old age."

Miller is also keen on sharing her political views. "Basically, we're living under a fascist regime," she says of Blair's New Labour, before pulling it back and saying that she thinks her previous remark was disrespectful to people who live under true dictatorships. She also says "There's an image of Americans in a tank, and an Iraqi woman walks down the street and she sees the tank and the soldiers just run her over," although its not clear if she's free-associating, or referencing some real incident. As for her upcoming slate, Miller says she's finished work on both Stardust, the British fantasy film, and Interview, the latest directing project from Steve Buscemi. Throughout the sprawling interview, Miller also talks about mating rabbits at boarding school, filling a water-gun with piss and shooting it at the paparazzi, the stupidity of learning math -- "take a f**king calculator, you nob" -- re-naming American cities, and why people should walk around topless.

Santa Barbara seems like a pretty cool place to hold a film festival; nice people, fancy cars, great weather, swanky restaurants ... and oh yeah, the movies. The Santa Barabarians are presently gearing up for their 22nd annual film festival, and I'm here to tell you what they'll be playing. Well, some of what they'll be playing. Well, the big titles anyway.

Based on what Variety tells me, the SBIFF will be offering a solid handful of world premieres, including Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 (which stars Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen), Lake of Fire (a documentary about abortion that comes from the guy who directed American History X) and Christopher Plummer in Man in the Chair, which is a story about the last-surviving Citizen Kane crew member. Interesting.

Not premieres, but potentially quite interesting are "that Dakota Fanning movie" Hounddog, George Hickenlooper's controversial Factory Girl, Michael Apted's Amazing Grace and Sue Kramer's Gray Matters. The fest folks will also take some time from their busy screening schedule to honor filmmakers like Forest Whitaker, Bill Condon, Helen Mirren and Will Smith.

Plus a whole lot more. So if you live within, say, 40-some miles of Santa Barbara and you want to see some interesting flicks between January 25 and February 4, now you have something to do.

Just by watching the trailer for Factory Girl, I gathered that Hayden Christensen's character is supposed to represent Bob Dylan. He's got the voice, the look and the harmonica. Sure, the character has a different name, and the film's producers are insisting that it is actually a composite of Dylan, Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, but as played and depicted, it is as obviously specific as it gets. The whole thing makes me think of Velvet Goldmine, which featured Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor blatantly portraying David Bowie and Iggy Pop, respectively, without the film's use of real names. But that film had no intention of being passed as a true story, unlike Factory Girl, a biopic that otherwise represents real people by name. Velvet Goldmine also didn't implicate any of its characters as being responsible for a person's death.

Dylan is no idiot, and he isn't about to let a movie indirectly accuse him of being the cause of Edie Sedgwick's suicide. According to the NY Post's Page Six column, he's prepared to take legal action; lawyers have already begun proceedings by demanding they see the film before anymore screenings are held. Though the case isn't yet involving the courts, if Factory Girl producers Bob Yari and Holly Wiersma don't comply with the missive issued them, things might get ugly.

Dylan is reportedly very concerned about how the film will affect his image. And he should be. As if the trailer wasn't enough, it is being noted that people who've seen the film say that it is unmistakably Dylan being portrayed. Plus, there's the matter that the original script had the character named Bob Dylan before it was changed to the fictionalized "Billy Quinn" (or is it "Danny Quinn"?).

This legal matter adds to a very long list of controversy surrounding Factory Girl, including a lawsuit over distribution rights and a complaint from the literally depicted Lou Reed.


[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Well, it looks like no matter how hard we try, we just can't escape Factory Girl. My personal interest in this movie has been waning for a while now, and the trailer didn't exactly inspire confidence. There has been word of re-shoots, and now entirely new scenes are being added. None of which is a particularly good sign, but Harvey Weinstein refuses to say die when it comes to this Warhol-era biopic.

A report from Radar, has Weinstein making the rounds to make sure that the Academy doesn't forget about Factory Girl when it comes time to hand out the nominations. Weinstein has taken out "For Your Consideration" ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. It seems a little premature considering that the film hasn't even finished shooting in New York, and the deadline for Oscar consideration is fast approaching. A spokesperson for Weinstein defended the move, saying that critics had "seen an early cut of the movie and given it high praise, especially Sienna Miller and Guy Pearce's performances. We don't think it's premature to start promoting the film for awards consideration." Which I can't help but think translates into sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "la-la-la I can't hear you". I guess we will see who gets the last laugh when the film opens this December. ...


[ via Hollywood Elsewhere ]

Is it just me or does it seem a little odd that in the trailer for Factory Girl, the film that was supposed to be Sienna Miller's big Oscar hope ends up being more about Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol? I really can't blame them considering Pearce's performance as the perpetually bored Warhol looks spot on. Pearce actually managed to make me a little more excited about the film. Most of the talk surrounding the movie has been gossip; Katie Holmes departure, lawsuits, and Millers hectic personal life, very little of it had anything to do with the film itself -- I'm sure Lou Reed's comment didn't help either.

Moviefone has finally premiered the trailer to the film, along with the poster. Edie Sedgwick was the daughter of a prominent family who dabbled in modeling and was taken into Warhol's Factory studio during the mid-sixties. She was a star in his films until the two had a nasty falling out -- if you believe the trailer, it was all Bob Dylan's fault. Sedgwick was one of the many casualties of The Factory and is usually remembered more for her premature death than anything she accomplished when she was alive -- well that, and that really lame song by The Cult. So take a look at the trailer and tell me if this is Sienna's big break -- or did she manage to let Warhol steal the show from Edie Sedgwick once again?

Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeffrey Wells (and, it must be said, at least one other critic, whom he quotes) is finding himself very impressed by George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl, the Edie Sedgwick biopic that may or may not be coming out at the end of the year. More specifically, Wells is blown away by the performance of Sienna Miller in the lead role and, assuming the Weinsteins get it on some screens in time to qualify, he's expecting her to get an Oscar nod, alongside such grand dames as Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) and Helen Mirren (The Queen). According to Wells' post, Miller "gets [Sedwick's] fluttery debutante laugh, that mixture of Warholian cool and little-girl terror, the giddy euphoria, the cracked voice. It's more than convincing -- it's a kind of rebirthing."

Um, wow. And hooray! I know essentially nothing about Sedgwick, but I've adored Miller since she lit up the small screen in the under-seen (and under-rated) Keen Eddie, and would love to see her get some credibility -- particularly given the fact that she been turned into something of a joke by the tabloids (as well as evil bloggers like ourselves).

Memoirist J.T. Leroy, an HIV-positive ex-hustler who survived an indescribably awful childhood to become a best-selling author, was outed recently as a completely fictional creation dreamed up by a real writer named Laura Albert. (Neither of whom should be confused with author James Frey, who also lied about his life but stopped short of making himself up.) One of "Leroy's" books (really written by Albert), The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, was turned into a movie in the wake of the frenzied, fawning reaction that greeted its publication; starring and directed by Asia Argento, the film is set to open in the US next week. In an effort to embrace the hoax that is making them look like fools, Palm Pictures changed the film's tagline to "Behind the greatest hoax of our time is the heartbreaking story that started it all." Oh, the clever.

Following that release (for which I assume Albert is getting paid - she's completely cleaning up here), The Weinstein Company has announced its intention to make a film about Leroy (him/her)self. Written by Captain Mauzner, the man who penned Factory Girl, the film will be based on Warren St. John's New York Times articles that exposed Leroy as a fake, so it'll be less a biopic than an expose. Thought Heart sounds humiliating to watch (A wrenching bio about the writer's horrible upbring that's entirely made up? No thanks.), there's a lot of potential in a fact-based Leroy project. If nothing else, it'll give Mauzner a great opportunity to frolic in a little bit of literary cloak-and-dagger and, if he does his job well, it'll be a great ride for viewers, as well.

At Sundance last week, the Weinstein Company triumphantly announced that it had landed the rights to distribute the Edie Sedgwick biopic, Factory Girl, in a group of English-speaking territories, including North America. This news came as a bit of a shock to the people at Sony, however, who thought they had acquired North American rights back in October. Oops.

According to a lawsuit filed by Sony early this week, they first saw the script in July, and had further contact with Holly Wiersma, the film's producer, the following fall. When the movie found itself struggling for financing, Sony "offered to buy the North American distribution rights - something Wiersma agreed to in writing, through her agents, after negotiations concluded in October." Though the producer has yet to publicly respond to the charges, it would appear that the agreement - if, in fact, it happened - slipped her mind when Harvey and Bob were chatting her up in Park City. Did I mention oops?