”I work very long hours,” said Scott Rudin. He must.
Rudin, a producer, has a lineup of projects with stars that include Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest, Harry Connick Jr., Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Whoopi Goldberg; directors Mike Nichols and Roger Donaldson; writer David Rabe; and properties like the best-selling novel ”The Firm.”
”I like movies that are theatrical, that hopefully displace a little atmosphere when they arrive,” said Rudin, a former president for production at 20th Century Fox.
Last year Rudin was the executive producer of ”Flatliners” and the producer of ”Pacific Heights.”
Rudin is hoping to displace a little atmosphere with ”Regarding Henry,” directed by Nichols. The film, which opened Wednesday in Chicago, stars Ford as a ruthless, highly successful lawyer and Annette Bening as his wife. The couple must confront a profound change in their lives after a traumatic event. ”The thing I found very powerful about it,” Rudin said of the story,
”is that it`s about a kind of transfiguration that happens to this man as he`s forced to re-examine the choices and decisions that have led him to an unhappy place in his life.
”He gets the choice that anybody would want: the chance to look at his values and the things he has and doesn`t have, and right the course of his life.”
While ”Regarding Henry” was in postproduction, ”The Addams Family,”
another of Rudin`s projects for Paramount Pictures, was before the cameras under the direction of Barry Sonnenfeld.
Based on the macabre characters created by Charles Addams, the film stars Huston, Julia and Lloyd.
”I loved Charles Addams` work,” Rudin said. ”I loved the subversive nature of it.” The film should be in release around Thanksgiving.
In preparation for filming in the fall is ”Jennifer Eight,” a romantic thriller to be directed by Bruce Robinson. Also in preparation is ”The Cheese Stands Alone,” a comedy about Hungarian gypsies living in America, written by Kathy McWhorter, and ”The Firm,” based on a screenplay by David Rabe adapted from John Grisham`s novel about a young lawyer who gets an offer that seems too good to be true. ”Faust in a law firm” was the way Rudin described it.
To be filmed this summer, he said, is ”White Sands,” Dan Pyne`s thriller about a small-town sheriff in the Midwest, to be directed by Roger Donaldson. Also in preparation for summer filming is a comedy for Whoopi Goldberg, ”Sister Act,” about which Rudin will say no more than that it is unusual.
And there is ”Waiting for Bobby Fischer,” about a boy who is a chess champion, adapted by Steve Zaillian (”Awakenings”) from the book by Fred Waitzkin and to be directed, in his debut, by Zaillian.
Already in postproduction, heading for release this year, is ”Little Man Tate,” the directing debut of Jodie Foster, who stars with Wiest and Connick. – What Beverly D`Angelo likes is taking risks, she says.
”For the past couple of years, I have been involved with independent filmmaking,” said the actress, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Patsy Cline in ”Coal Miner`s Daughter” and who went on to appear in ”National Lampoon`s Vacation,” ”Aria,” ”High Spirits” and
”Pacific Heights.”
Now D`Angelo, who was a singer and an animator for Hanna-Barbera before making her movie debut in the 1979 ”Hair,” may be seen playing an actress who comes up against her past in ”The Miracle,” directed by Neil Jordan, who also directed her in ”High Spirits.”
At the same time, she`s in front of the cameras in Hollywood in ”Man Trouble,” Bob Rafelson`s film about menace and romance, which also stars Jack Nicholson, Ellen Barkin and Harry Dean Stanton.
D`Angelo and Barkin play sisters. D`Angelo described her character as ”a woman who gets what she wants.”
The character has just written a book about the man she`s involved with,
”the richest man in the United States and possibly the world-poor in health, but wealthy,” D`Angelo said.
How does she prepare for a role? ”My life-which has been basically how I prepare for anything,” she said. ”I`m still waiting for a role that competes with my life.”
