FILMMAKER MAGAZINE | Spring 1996: PRODUCTION UPDATE

PRODUCTION UPDATE

Tom Berenger stars in Tollbooth director Salome Breziner's second feature, the steamy crime story Occasional Hell. Randall Silvis adapted his '93 novel of the same name, with Breziner taking a pass at the script to give it an edge she calls "halfway between Angel Heart and Body Heat."

Berenger plays an ex-cop fumbling towards salvation after being shot in the kidneys and finding himself dependent on dialysis. Retired and leading a reclusive life teaching crime writing at a small southern college, Berenger is forced to get back on the horse when a beautiful widow (Four Rooms' Valeria Golino) comes to him for help clearing her name in her husband's murder.

Now 28, Breziner first raised Hollywood eyebrows when her highly stylized 20-minute short, Lifted, aired on Showtime and The Movie Channel in 1992. Although Breziner had already acquired rights to Harry Crews' novel Car and intended that project as her second feature, she was still struggling to pay off Tollbooth debts when Robert Greenwald and New Regency producer David Matalon came to her with Hell last spring. "I thought I could do something really different with the material and I'd always wanted to work with Tom [Berenger] - I pitched it to him verbally and he said `yes,'" says Breziner.

The $5 - 6 million Hell is the first project for the producers' new Greenlight Productions, which they've financed to the tune of a $22 million credit line for four features with an average budget of $5 million. Whereas New Regency productions come out through Warner Brothers, Matalon and Greenwald can shop Greenlight films at their discretion. In January, Initial Entertainment Group - Small World Sales principals' Cindy Cowan and Graham King's year-old production venture - acquired international rights to sell Hell on Greenlight's behalf.

The 35mm Hell shot in Charleston, South Carolina for seven weeks this fall, wrapping out by Christmas. Breziner reports that the inconsistent weather at that time of year - day-to-day fluctuations between a frosty 30 degrees and a brilliant 80 degrees - lent the look of the film a kind of odd majesty. The film should be finished by the end of April and rights are available through Initial. At press time Breziner was scheduling an April start for her third film, the absolutely independent Fast Sofa, described as a nihilistic Gen-X road trip and slated to star Jake Busey (Gary's son), Fairuza Balk and Rose McGowan. Tollbooth comes out from Arrow in late May.

Cast: Tom Berenger, Valeria Golino, Kari Wuhrer, Robert Davi, Stephen Lang, Richard Edson, Geoffrey Lewis, Danny Comden, Ellen Green. Crew: Producers, David Matalon, Robert Greenwald, George Moffly, Allan Apone; Executive Producers, Tom Berenger, Bill Macdonald; Screenwriter, Randall Silvis; Director, Salome Breziner; Director of Photography, Mauro Fiore; Production Designer, Mauricio De Aguinaco; Locations, Arthur Howe; Editor, Gib Jaffe. Contact: David Matalon, New Regency, 4000 Warner Blvd., Building 66, Burbank, CA 91522. Tel:(818) 954-3838, Fax: (818) 954-2636.

Lewis & Clark & George