We’re finally getting around to parsing this New York Times article on David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
It doesn’t tell us much that obsessives around this film (like us) don’t already know, but there are some tidbits of info and some that it sounds like the writer of the piece Michael Cieply has seen the film.
Noteworthy things:
– the film apparently spans, “all the way forward to Hurricane Katrina.” We don’t remember reading that in the original script that Eric Roth wrote so some revisions must’ve been made to modernize it.
– apparently “some publicists” who specialize in Oscar prognosticating believe that the Oscar showdown will ultimately between ‘Button’ and “Frost/Nixon.” Probably way too subjective a polling to take seriously (What Cieply got in a conversation with three L.A. publicists? InContention has our backs here too and isn’t feeling that posit, which quite a bit of sarcasm and disdain we might add).
– According to the article, ‘Button’ is a bit of ego justification for Paramount head Brad Grey who wants to prove he can put audience asses in seats and win Oscars without the help of Dreamworks or Steven Spieberg.
– The Times puts the cost of the film around $150 million after tax incentives from the state of Louisiana where the film was shot.
– Again they mention Grey and his “determination to occasionally serve art and commerce in the same picture.”
– The original story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald (which we own, but haven’t read yet), evidently offers little by way of details so Roth was given free reign to invent. “I was given carte blanche to create, more or less, whatever world I wanted,” Roth told the Times.
– Roth wrote “Forrest Gump” (a wretchedly saccharine film, sorry), but it won Oscars (6 of ’em), so Paramount people are referring it as “Forrest Gumpian.” That’s not off the mark, in our script review, we complained about some cliched screenplay elements in the story.
– Umm, here’s one you don’t hear everyday. ‘Button’ marketers are looking to Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s concepts of mixing up words and meanings. “The idea is: You must live your life forward, but it can only be understood backward.”
– In the early ”90s producer Ray Stark was the first one to spot ‘Button’s potential, but he saw it as a comedy for Martin Short with Steven Spielberg as it’s intended director! “When Mr. Spielberg stalled, Mr. Stark wrote him an impassioned memo, demanding to know whether he really planned to make the film or was just going to keep working on what Mr. Stark liked to call ‘that dinosaur movie.’ ” (aka “Jurrassic Park”)
– Spike Jonze was once involved in the project (we’ve noted this before)
– Roth, who clearly has a vested in the project says, “I’m going to tell you right now, it’s good.”
*yeah, we shoulda done some photoshopping of Short, ‘Button’ and Spielberg, but we’re too in love with these new images, some of which are pinched from the new trailer. As we wrote in our screenplay review, we’re not convinced the story is utter genius, but we did mostly like it and obviously by the amount of posts and enthusiasm we have for this film, we’re still greatly looking forward to it, but with caution and not blind optimism.