Hollywood screenwriter dishes the dirt

[buttmunch]

Joe Eszterhas wrote "Basic Instinct," "Flashdance," "Showgirls" and "Jagged Edge" and once got $4 million for a four-page outline. But now, the superscripter has written "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God," in which he dishes about the stars with whom he's worked as he doles out tips on his craft. To wit:

"Liv Tyler did an interview in which she said she was the inspiration for 'Showgirls.' She said I had become obsessed with her after seeing her play a stripper in an Aerosmith video. She said, 'He tried to get me to take the lead in the movie, but I didn't want to get into that kind of thing.' It was news to me. I'd never seen the Aerosmith video, I'd never met or spoken with Liv."


"Val Kilmer is an imbecile. Asked by the Academy to nominate the three best film moments of the century, Kilmer nominated three of his movies. One of them was 'Batman Forever.'"
"For many years, Robert De Niro, always brilliant onscreen, couldn't even say two words on his own. He'd sit there, not speaking - woefully, miserably, pathetically lost without the words of a script."

"Michael Douglas, in my experience, is not brilliant and may very well, in some cases, be dumb. This is the guy who wanted to change the ending of 'Basic Instinct' because it wasn't 'redemptive.' Douglas didn't like that he was the star of the movie and that [Sharon Stone] 'one-ups me at every turn.'"

Meanwhile, "Sharon's 'prima donna' behavior so annoyed the crew on one of her movies that they relieved themselves into a bathtub before Sharon got into it for her scene."

"The joke in Hollywood is that Warren Beatty, the 'great auteur,' can turn a 'go' movie into a development deal. He'll get involved, work with six writers rewriting your script, then pull out of the project."

"You don't want Edward Norton to star in your movie. He now rewrites all the scripts he agrees to act in."
And Eszterhas claims that when Madonna was trying to get the part in "Desperately Seeking Susan," she went to the office of Orion production chief Barbara Boyle, "dropped to her knees and said, 'I'll do anything to get this part.' Boyle said, 'I'm happily married and I'm straight,' to which Madonna replied, 'You should try everything once.'"

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-378341c.html

This guy is such a tool in so many ways but I love the stories, especially Michael Douglas being dumb and Madonna doing exactly what we'd expect her to do.

[HWBL]

Eszterhas is a vindictive asshole with a huge ego. I can only comment on his Beatty remark, cos that's the only celeb I know enough about. Eszterhas never had anything negative to say about Beatty until AFTER Beatty showed no interest in several screenplay pitches he made to him. I guess that dented his ego so much that he began trashing Beatty every chance he got (or took). Asshat. Beatty's (co-) written screenplays/stories/scripts for several Oscar (and other important awards) nominated movies, so he must be doing SOMETHING right.

[UndercoverGator]

IMHO most actors are dumber than a box of rocks without a script in their hands telling theme exactly what to say. He may well be a deluded asshole but I'm betting there's at least a grain of truth to what he's saying.

[enctpc]

I find what he says interesting and that he can dish on all the "stars" like this..

[buttmunch]

He can dish because he's a non-entity these days. Plus, snorting large piles of coke tends to give you diarhea mouth.

[ourmaninBusan]

Joe Eszterhas wrote "Basic Instinct," "Flashdance," "Showgirls" and "Jagged Edge" ...

...all of which suffer from the worst, most obvious dialogue ever to run
its fingernails on a blackboard. I don't care if you do like twist endings;
if the story is impossible to sit through, I don't care about the ending.

Beatty, on the other hand, starred in Splendour in the Grass, Shampoo,
Reds, Heaven Can Wait and Bonnie & Clyde, a movie which
struck such a huge chord of popularity with audiences that critics
who saw it in the summer of 1967 apologized by Oscar time
for not getting it. People bought "bullethole" stickers and put them
on their windshields to show their love of the film; sales of icepicks
have not benefited from the success of Basic Instinct.

[buttmunch]

Oh, I love Beatty. He's fabulous, although this isn't the first time someone has said he dithers a bit when it comes to scripts, etc. But I WANT to believe it about Madonna and M. Douglas!

[HWBL]

^It's a well known fact, publicly acknowledged by Beatty himself, that he takes forever to develop a movie. However: those are all scripts or screenplays, or movie ideas DEVELOPED BY HIM, so he has a right to.
He started on "Reds" (1981) in the late sixties. He and Robert Towne worked on "Shampoo" for close to 7 years. "Heaven Can Wait" about four years. For "Bugsy" he had a first draft of a script that he sent to James Toback to develop. Toback then took 6 years to do it, during which time Beatty acted in and produced "Ishtar" and wrote, acted, directed and produced "Dick Tracy"!!!!! The idea for "Bulworth" (1998) was born in the mid-eighties and wasn't put on film until 1997! All these things Beatty has publicly talked about in print and filmed interviews after he started talking to the press again.
Except for "Ishtar", all the movie scripts were (initially) by his hand!
What Eszterhas (sp) is suggesting is that he does the same to other people's movies and scripts. "Ishtar" was an Elaine May movie and he didn't take control of her script either (maybe he should have ) Worse: "Towne and Country" started shooting WITHOUT a finished script, which is why it's such a mess.
If he wants to take forever on a script that's his to begin with, he has every right to do so. The reason why it's sour grapes for Eszterhas, is that Beatty didn't even see anything in the scripts and story ideas he tried to pitch to Beatty, i.e. didn't even WANT to touch them. Eszterhas conveniently forgets to mention that fact.

[Classic Broad]

So a person takes their time - shows they care about what they're doing, if that's the worst thing he can say about Warren Beatty, then ..................

[lovelyday]

I absolutely believe the dish on Ed Norton. Other directors have alluded to his attempts at tinkering with scripts to the point of rewriting. He fancies himself a screenwriter when I think he is a much better actor.

[Bellatheball]

Oh man, wouldn't this have been beautiful if it had come from Steven S or someone? Come on, this guy puts out crappy ass movies and now we're to care what he says? Big deal.

[greysfang]

OMG! I would LOVE to hear Soderbergh dish, especially since he and George Clooney just dissolved their partnership. I wonder what that was all about. (And NO, I don't think George is gay, get your minds outta the gutter).

[buttmunch]

I absolutely believe the dish on Ed Norton. Other directors have alluded to his attempts at tinkering with scripts to the point of rewriting. He fancies himself a screenwriter when I think he is a much better actor.

I think American X would be a perfect example of this.

[Laurent]

"Val Kilmer is an imbecile. Asked by the Academy to nominate the three best film moments of the century, Kilmer nominated three of his movies. One of them was 'Batman Forever.'"

Fucking hilarious. Val seems like a douche and if he thinks "Batman Forever" is cinematic genius, he must be out of his gourd.

[buttmunch]

Val Kilmer is such a disappointment. I loved him when he was young (give me Top Secret any day) but then he morphed into a complete nobend.