Later this summer, audiences will be asked to find a small, independent picture called “Star Maps,” about a teenage boy who goes to great lengths to break into the movies.
Even though he had nothing to do with the project and the film tells a different story than his own, friends of David Permut are calling to find out if it might be based on his experiences as president and chief salesman for the Beverly Hills Map Co. No, he answers, but it would be easy to make that assumption.
“I moved out to L.A. from New York when I was 13, and I had tunnel vision. . . . I wanted to be in the film business,” the 41-year-old producer recalled, during an interview in his Wilshire Boulevard office.
“I was president of the company at the ripe old age of 15. I made the maps to the stars’ homes myself . . . did all the research. There were a lot of stories.
“Katharine Hepburn and Fred Astaire used to come by my corner. Randolph Scott’s wife gave me an umbrella because she thought I was getting too much sun.”
Then, after a brief stint at UCLA, Permut had to go and spoil a promising career in cartography by becoming an agent and, later, head of Permut Presentations.
“Early in my career, people would say, `You look very familiar,’ ” he added, with a chuckle. “I looked familiar because everybody saw me when I was out there selling maps.”
Permut’s name–if not his face–has become a familiar presence in the trade newspapers and in the small print on posters and previews. In the last 10 years, he’s been responsible for developing several films based on television series, and his moniker now can be found on a “laundry list” of producers in ads for the hyperkinetic new thriller “Face/Off,” starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, which opened Friday.
“I acquired the script almost five years ago,” said Permut, who looks a little like Ryan O’Neal. “It had fallen through the cracks at another studio.
“I put it on my MasterCard. There was a six-figure option up front, with a ticking clock–90 days–to find a studio.”
After the deal was set up at Paramount, several stars and directors were attached to the project. It now boasts a powerhouse lineup of Cage, Travolta, Joan Allen and premier action director John Woo.
While the final product bears Woo’s unmistakable fingerprints, it still resembles the project Permut was drawn to half a decade ago.
“I thought the writers did a terrific job with the draft, although it’s come a long way in the development process over the years,” said Permut, who also credits Paramount executive Thomas Levine with seeing the project through.
“The script was very good, but everything starts with an idea. A good idea is more important than who’s producing it, directing it, starring in it.”
That statement, in itself, borders on heresy in Hollywood.
Another unusual thing about “Face/Off,” though, is that the two men who penned the original script have retained sole writing credit and, moreover, they are listed as co-producers. Usually, screenwriters get the Rodney Dangerfield treatment.
“We achieved that because of David’s involvement,” said Michael Colleary, who wrote it with Mike Werb. “When the option was up at Warner Bros., David and his partner–Joel Michaels–wanted to acquire the control of `Face/Off’ before we took it out again to other studios. They were afraid we would go to someone with a bigger checkbook, so they offered us a co-producer credit, as well as cash upfront and a guaranteed amount when the deal was rolled over to another studio.”
“If they couldn’t set it up, we’d get it back again,” Werb added.
As it turned out, executive producers Douglas and Reuther kept the writers actively involved in the development and production process.
“There were more than a few instances when we’d be fighting for a scene, which would be really expensive, and Steve Reuther would tell us to take our writers’ hats off and think like producers,” Werb said. “He’d remind us that those 30 seconds of film would cost $2 million to shoot.”
The collaboration steered the original, more futuristic “Face/Off” back into the present. A story that started as a battle of the Titans was given emotional force by providing Travolta with motivation for revenge and a more substantial family relationship.
“David knows everyone, and he’s the consummate pitchman in this town,” Colleary emphasized. “He loved the script and saw the potential.
“We all agreed that big appeal of the movie was through talent and that we should go with the best actors we could, instead of just action stars.”
Looking back, Permut reflected on a producing career that began in 1975, when he taped James Whitmore’s one-man theatrical show, “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry,” and set up his own distribution network because the studios wouldn’t touch it. Four years later he mined territory with the first in-performance film by Richard Pryor.
The $1-million project grossed more than $30 million and prompted a call from veteran producer Ray Stark. Permut was about to learn first-hand how Hollywood really works.
“I was used to making movies in one or two nights and being in release three weeks later,” he said. “So, now I’m a young guy at Columbia Pictures and I’m feeling like a big shot. Then I got involved in development hell.”
Several years later, he remembers lying in bed one night, channel surfing with his remote control.
“I was watching a rerun of `Dragnet,’ and two channels away from that was a rerun of `Saturday Night Live,’ ” said Permut, dressed for work in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. “I started thinking: Dan Aykroyd . . . Joe Friday. I got up in the morning and started making calls.
“I found out that Universal had acquired the rights from Jack Webb. Now, I had a challenge.”
What happened next is part of Hollywood legend.
“It was the shortest pitch in movie history,” Permut suggests. “I went in to the head of the studio, with Dan standing next to me, and said: `Dum, de, dum, dum.’ He said, `Let’s go.’ “
“Dragnet,” which also starred Tom Hanks, went on to become one of the top 10 movies of 1987. It also gave Permut a dubious distinction.
“After `Dragnet’ became a huge hit, people were calling me up with every vintage TV show,” he said. “They wouldn’t even introduce themselves. They’d just say `Sky King,’ `Fury,’ `Flipper.’
“People thought I was this genius who came up with this brilliant idea, just because I stayed up late one night watching television. I got lucky.”
He went on to develop “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Little Rascals,” as well as such non-television fare as “Blind Date,” “The Temp,” “Consenting Adults,” “Captain Ron,” “Three of Hearts” and “Eddie.”
Not all of these pictures made money, but, as everyone knows, bombs go with the territory here. Still, he regrets that “29th Street,” a warm ethnic comedy that starred Anthony LaPaglia and Danny Aiello, didn’t find a bigger audience.
“There’s only one poster hanging in my office,” he said. “I invested in `29th Street,’ and, in an effort to get it made, I took no fee. We made it for very little in Hollywood terms–under $7 million–and, because of ancillaries, we made our money back.”
Looking ahead, Permut is back in the business of translating vintage TV for the big screen. With projects such as “F Troop,” “Green Acres” and “The Love Boat,” he will be trying to find success where such recent efforts as “McHale’s Navy” and “Sgt. Bilko” failed.
“I don’t think you can recycle a television series and merely create a new episode, then expect people to pay to see it,” said Permut. “There has to be a theatrical spin to it. You’ve got to have movie stars in it.”
Permut said he wanted to acquire the rights to “The Love Boat” from Aaron Spelling 10 years ago, but Spelling wasn’t interested.
“Fortunately, after several years, Aaron and I finally had a face-to-face meeting and we hit it off,” he said, hinting that much of the project’s appeal would come via creative casting.
“Then, we have Bette Midler in `Green Acres’–packing her Louis Vuitton luggage and moving to Hooterville. She’s the last person you’d imagine milking a cow in spike heels.”
Permut is also working with Whoopi Goldberg and David Faustino (who played Bud Bundy on “Married . . . With Children”) on a new live-action UPN sitcom, “Ruby,” which features a diva-like puppet. He also is developing a documentary project with David Crosby, focusing on activism in rock music, and a series with Spy magazine.
In the near term, though, Permut was only sure of one thing. When “Face/Off” opened, he was planning to have his cell phone turned off and hiking shoes strapped on.
“Every time a picture opens, I’m in the same place: on top of a mountain, at Canyon Ranch in Tucson,” he said. “When I come down the mountain on Saturday morning, there will be phone calls.
“If it’s the head of studio, I know it’s a good sign. If it’s a lower level executive or parking attendant I know it’s not.”
