At the 1987 Oscar ceremony, Steven Spielberg received the Irving Thalberg Award: an honor bestowed on a filmmaker whose body of work is deemed outstanding. Spielberg devoted his acceptance speech to the importance of the writer in cinema.
”I`m told that Irving Thalberg worshiped writers, and that`s where it all begins,” he said. ”In our romance with technology and our excitement to explore the possibilities of film and video, we`ve partially lost something we have to reclaim. I think it`s time to renew our romance with the word.”
True to the spirit of his speech, Spielberg searched for a project to exalt America`s finest storytellers. That quest culminated in ”TNT Screenworks.”
Monday night David Mamet`s ”The Water Engine,” starring Tony winner Joe Mantegna and William H. Macy, launches this series of adaptations of works by our country`s greatest playwrights. The series is produced by Spielberg`s Amblin TV and Michael Brandman Productions partnered with TNT.
For the first time since the ”Golden Age” of live television drama in the 1950s, this six-part venture makes the writer lord of the dramatic kingdom.
In addition to Mamet`s Depression-era allegory of a guileless inventor who encounters the darkest side of American business, the series includes Horton Foote`s lyrical Southern Gothic masterpiece ”The Habitation of Dragons,” Arthur Miller`s classic ”The American Clock,” Keith Reddin`s stylish murder drama ”The Heart of Justice” and Lee Blessing`s
”Cooperstown,” a meditation on one man`s search for self-worth.
Besides adapting his own play (or, in the case of Miller, working closely with adaptor Frank Galati, winner of a Tony for ”The Grapes of Wrath”), each playwright participated in the casting, went on location to join in the production of the work and assisted in the editing.
”My job in the context of this project is to support these writers and not allow the disparate interests of the exhibitors and distributors to influence the integrity of the artist,” says Brandman, executive producer of ”Screenworks.”
Brandman captains the ship of this remarkable paean to storytellers bound together by the common thread of excellence. Amblin TV is his ”ideal support system.” Spielberg helps select scripts, review directors, read adaptations and evaluate roughcuts. The Amblin staff is intimately involved in day-to-day decisions.
A professional history deeply rooted in the theater makes Brandman the perfect person for his job. One of the founders of the Establishment Theatre in New York in the 1960s, he devotes his career as an independent producer to translating stage plays to television and feature films.
Arthur Miller`s ”All My Sons,” and Stephen Sondheim`s ”Sunday in the Park With George” are part of a long list of prestigious projects bearing his mark.
”Brandman,” says Foote, ”has real vision and enormous security. He`s not afraid of other people`s input.” Foote`s ”Habitation” airs Sept. 8 as the series` second offering. It features Frederic Forrest, Hallie Foote and the late Brad Davis in his final performance.
Foote, grand old man of the American stage, winner of Oscars for ”To Kill a Mockingbird” and ”Tender Mercies,” made his reputation during television`s ”Golden Age.”
During a phone interview from Charlottesville, Va., he sings the reporter a verse of the hymn ”Blessed Assurance,” then compares his ”Screenworks”
experience to TV`s halcyon days.
”The whole atmosphere was very much like that created by Fred Coe. Whatever his problems were, he didn`t burden the writer with them. In those days, we didn`t have to worry about suiting the common denominator. The same was true of `Screenworks.`
”There was never any pressure put on the writer for changes. I did rethink because I had this other dimension to explore that I don`t have in the theater. But anything that was done to the work was left absolutely up to me.”
The gap between the dramatic universes of Foote and Mamet approximates the size of the Grand Canyon. The tough-minded ”Water Engine,” exquisitely relentless in its indictment of big business and its portrait of the individual`s plight, stands in stark contrast to Foote`s ”Habitation.”
Equally dark in its view of life`s tragedies, Foote`s poignant elegiac story of a family burdened by misfortune does not leave the viewer entirely without hope. His vision gives us the prospect of spiritual survival in the face of life`s bluntest blows; he finds the essential humanity in the meanest of his characters.
Brandman says that this diversity of sensibilities and genres in the series is intentional.
”This project was always designed to present a cross-section of American writers. From the established deans-we always knew there were two of those around. One being Horton Foote, and the other being Arthur Miller. To the very bright young writers like Keith Reddin. Then the main guard personified by David Mamet and Lee Blessing.”
Producing the films on small budgets-reportedly just over $2 million each-proved to be Brandman`s greatest challenge. But from the beginning the producer believed that artists would disregard their usual price to be a part of a project of great worth. There were those in the Hollywood community who sneered at his optimism.
In the end, those cynics took a backseat to reality. Like homing birds seeking their native spiritual ground, artists flocked to the project for the privilege of working to their fullest strength.
Memorable images of those artists crowd Brandman`s recollections of production: Horton Foote seated under a 100-year-old live oak tree in the stifling heat, his screenplay spread across his lap; MGM`s elegant ”English Rose”; the legendary Maureen O`Sullivan, crossing a country highway to dine at the 24-hour truckstop on the other side; David Mamet refusing to be photographed ”smiling” with a producer; Frederic Forrest giving what may well be the performance of his life.
Tony Thomopolous, president of Amblin TV, professes high hopes for the outcome of the series. ”What`s critical is that this quality material is being made available to a large audience. We hope it may encourage people to reach out and read other works by these playwrights. If we could excite just one young person to become the next Arthur Miller, what an accomplishment that would be!”
