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HBO: Tell us how you came to the project.
Bill Couturié: Well, I'm a film school brat and I've always
loved Hollywood movies even though I make
documentaries. Last year I made a film for
HBO called 'Last Letters Home' about soldiers
who had been killed in Iraq. And it was
intensely emotional; a very hard movie to
make. Afterwards, (HBO's) Sheila Nevins said,
"Bill, thank you for doing this, I know it was
hard on you. We'll give you a fun movie next
time." I said, "Oh sure you will, Sheila."
Because all I've ever done for HBO is tear-
jerkers.
She then came to me and said, "Hey, it's
Variety's 100th anniversary and we want to do
something with them about blockbusters and
flops. Are you interested?" And I said, "Well,
potentially." But I would be partnering up
with Variety and Peter Bart who, at the time,
was the Editor in Chief.
Shotgun marriages are always risky because
you don't know who you're hopping into bed
with. But I met with Peter, and he turned out
to be great and so I said, yes. And the film
turned out to be big, big fun.
HBO: What was it like interviewing all these huge
stars and moguls?
Bill Couturié: I can tell you when I knew it was gonna be a
good movie. The second or third interview I
did was with George Clooney. And he was just
great. I mean, I was ready to not like him
because I was so jealous. I mean, he's
gorgeous, he's rich, he's talented, he's about
to win an Oscar, he's about to fly off to his
villa on Lake Como. And you know, it's hard
to feel a lot of empathy for a guy like that.
[CHUCKLES]
But he must be the most charming human
being on the planet. He's down to earth and so
funny and so self-deprecating. I think that's
what makes him so likeable is that he's the
first guy to poke fun at himself. We got such
an incredible interview from him. I just said,
"If this is what I've got to look forward to, I'm
gonna be able to make a good movie."
And the direction I gave everyone before we
would actually start filming was, "Look, I see
this as like a pitch meeting." When you go into
Hollywood studios and you pitch them, you
don't sit right down and start talking about
the movie you want to make. You shoot the
breeze for a while. And you tell stories. So I
said to everyone, "I want this to be like we're
just swapping stories that are truthful, that
are insightful, but that are also entertaining."
And that's what we got. You feel like you're
seeing a side of these people you never see.
Peter Bart: Bill and I both agreed that we'd also like to
have people who are somewhat fresh voices.
And to get people who are multi-talented, who
are writers, directors, actors, producers; to
have not only fresh voices, but voices in
different arenas.
HBO: The axiom of William Goldman's that in
Hollywood "nobody knows anything" is
interesting because we always think that
there are formulas to making hit movies, but
that notion goes out the window in BOFFO!
Bill Couturié: I think when people think about Hollywood,
they think, Oh yeah, I know about Hollywood.
People are into power, people are into money,
people are into looking good and being sexy
and having Ferrari's and big diamonds. But
that's just the trappings of success; that
comes after you've done the hard work.
So, what this film is about is the hard work.
What it really takes to make a movie and how
thin the line is between success and failure.
It's razor thin.
And I think it's interesting to see that no
matter how successful you are in Hollywood,
your next film could be a disaster. I mean,
there's nobody in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg
included, who hasn't failed. Failure comes
with the territory. And everyone talks frankly
about it in the movie, and I think it's
fascinating to see how fragile even the most
powerful people in the business are.
At the end of the day, the final arbiter is
always the audience, and you just don't know
how they're gonna react.
But what I think is interesting in BOFFO! is
here you have these people, some of whom are
billionaires, but when you scratch the surface,
they still love movies. And I think their love of
film comes through. People have said this is a
love letter to the movies and I think that's
certainly true.
This has been going on for a long time. And,
it's a bond between those of us who tell the
stories and act out the stories and the
audience. And it's a big game we play: the
actor's pretend they're the real people. We
pretend that we're writing something that's
true and plausible and real, and the audience
suspends disbelief and goes with it. And when
it all works, it's magic because there is
something that happens in a theater that just
doesn't happen anywhere else.
HBO: What do you hope HBO audiences will take
away from the movie?
Peter Bart: I think BOFFO! is both an homage to
filmmakers and to filmmaking. But it also
shows the agonies of the process. That when
you're making a picture, you don't know what
you've got, whether you've captured lighting in
a bottle, or as Sydney Pollack says, something
that somehow seems better than it was going
in. You don't know whether you have that or
whether you have something that doesn't
work at all and will embarrass you rather
than make you proud. And I think that's
something Bill has captured brilliantly. You
just don't see that point of view in a typical
movie about movie-making. They tend to be
puff pieces about how brilliant everyone is.
And indeed sometimes they are brilliant. But
sometimes brilliant people can make terrible
movies.
Bill Couturié: I think the more a person loves movies, the
more they will love BOFFO! And I think HBO
while it's no longer purely a movie service still
has a lot of movie lovers, so I think that they
will appreciate BOFFO! because they'll get it.
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