Sanger - Making the Elephant Man : A Producers Memoir

A Producers Memoir

JONATHAN SANGER

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2731-1

2016 Jonathan Sanger. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: John Hurt as John Merrick in the 1980 film The Elephant Man (Paramount Pictures/Photofest)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To Carla Sanger, my wife,
who was with me every step of the way on this journey
and who supported me whole-heartedly.
In 1988, when I won an Academy Award, I inadvertently
forgot to thank her. While I cannot rectify that error
until I get my next awardthis will have to do.

It is also dedicated to my two sons, David and Christopher,
who were only small children when this movie was made.
They are now great men
who fill me with pride every day.

Over the past several years I have been lecturing often about independent filmmaking as a working professional producer. I have been an adjunct professor of film and taught a course on independent filmmaking at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange, California. Many of the stories I recount in this book were originally part of my lectures at the college.

When I decided to put this history down in book form I worked with a writing group run by Lisa Lieberman Doctor, an author and teacher who has mentored many writers in mastering the form and style of fiction and non-fiction narrative. I want to thank Lisa and members of my group, Robert Wolff, Suzanne Ely, Karen Garver, Robert Ross, Terry Hoffmann, Rob Rotstein, and Jonathon Montemayor for their helpful notes and support during the writing process.

Id like to thank John and Anwen Hurt and Patty Norris for being early readers; Chris DeVore for some timely conversations that helped jog my memory over early details; and both Eric Bergren and Chris for writing the script in the first place.

And most importantly, Id like to thank David Lynch for the extraordinary work he did to create such an indelible film experience and for the warm friendship we have shared since those early days, and to Mel Brooks who was the owner we all could only hope for, who allowed David and me to realize our dream and supported us unstintingly throughout.

All photographs from the film and on the sets were taken by the superb film photographer Frank Conner. They are reproduced here by permission of Brooksfilms Ltd. Copyright 1980 Brooksfilms Ltd. All rights reserved. Any other photographs in the book are from my personal collection.

Standing in the middle of an eerily empty Times Square one Sunday morning, Tom Cruise asked me if clearing the worlds busiest intersection for an hour to shoot a movie scene (for Vanilla Sky) was my most challenging accomplishment as a film producer. It wasnt. Though each project over my 30-year career has had its challenges, it was my first film as producer, The Elephant Man, that set the bar high enough that I felt could accomplish anything.

Why tell the story of the making of a film that was released more than 30 years ago? How could that possibly be relevant to the world of filmmaking today, when almost every major university has a film department, and thousands of young, fresh faces will do almost anything to get into the film business, a world they believe to be glamorous and the pathway to great riches, if not personal fulfillment? Why, indeed? Because film is the art form of the latter half of the 20th century, and the new modes of storytelling that have been developed in the beginning of the 21st owe their power and influence to the techniques created by earlier filmmakers, just as great novels owed their origins to the oral traditions of even earlier generations of storytellers.

This story that I am about to share with you marked the very beginning of my exploration into the world of film, and, more specifically, into the world of independent filmmaking, which is where the most interesting storytelling is taking place today. Studio films nowadays are expected to be blockbustersthey are effects-driven, action experiences based on games, comic books, toy figures and popular mythology. They are more like amusement park rides than the classic films of the golden ages of cinema. It is the independently-financed, non-studio beauties that make up the world of real film storytelling today. This is the story of my first film. It also marked the early stages of some of the most iconic careers in cinema to the present day, as well as the reviving of older careers to new and unexpected heights. It is the story of a project that was on the cusp of the development of the ancillary markets that are the currency of all independent films since. It also marked the growing value of internationalism in motion picture distribution. Another, perhaps less recognized aspect of the story, is the combination of luck, timing, inspiration, and sheer talent that allowed such a small miracle to be produced and, in fact, must occur each and every time a story like this emerges from the page.

The book I have written is a case study in the development, funding, and production of this movie as well as a view into the marketing, release and subsequent entry into that small subset of movies that become iconic in the popular culture.

During the process of making the movie I kept detailed notes of the process and many of the incidents and conversations described here are verbatim. Of course there has been some license taken with some scenes that I describe, but they are essentially the conversations as I remember them and I have verified as many as possible with the participants.

The babysitter was waiting for me when I arrived home, a look of concern on her face. My instant thought went to my children and what might be the matter with them. My wife Carla had a full-time job at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and my erratic schedule as an assistant director meant that we needed help to cover for us when we couldnt be home. Kathleen Prilliman had taken the job of caring for our two young sons during the summer of 1978. Is something wrong? I asked. Where are the boys?

The boys are fine, she said. Theyre playing in the backyard.

I felt a quick surge of relief. So whats up?

I want to ask you a favor. She looked down at her feet and paused, her cheeks reddening. Would you be willing to read my boyfriends script? He and his friend have been working on it and would really like some feedback. This is their first screenplay and I think its really good.

Getting a request to read a script was a relatively common occurrence for anyone already working in a film-related capacity. In Los Angeles, it seemed, every waitress or salesperson was either a writer or an actor who had a script or a headshot to give out to a potentially interested party. I put the script on the desk in my home office and told her Id look at it and would give her some feedback for the writers.