I never thought I’d use Graham Greene’s and Eddie Griffin’s names in the same sentence, but the elegant British novelist and the sassy black comic have something in common: They’re key ingredients in “Double Take,” the action-comedy that stars Griffin as a con man who exchanges identities with an investment banker (Orlando Jones) who’s on the run after being framed for murder and laundering millions for a Mexican drug cartel.
In Hollywood, where movies take years to get made, projects often undergo a few changes with many twists and turns along the way.
But when it comes to total transformation, it would be hard to top “Double Take,” which, during the last decade, has involved — at least briefly — everyone from Greene and Griffin to Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Chris Tucker and Chris Rock.
Among the few constants in the project were writer-director George Gallo, best known for writing the 1988 hit “Midnight Run,” and producer David Permut, a high-energy deal maker who would seem much more at home in a novel by Elmore Leonard. (As a young producer, Permut sold a remake of “Dragnet” by going into the office of then-Universal studio head Frank Price and humming the TV show’s famous theme song with Dan Aykroyd standing at his side.)
Without such an easy hook, “Double Take” was much more difficult to get made. But its progress from moody thriller to streetwise comedy offers a telling glimpse of the commercial realities of today’s Hollywood.
It also serves as further evidence that African-American comic actors have become a dominant presence in youth-oriented comic thrillers. After a crowd of studio insiders saw an early “Double Take” screening, Griffin was deluged with offers of starring roles. Within a day, he’d signed with Imagine Entertainment to star in “Undercover Brother,” a film based on a Web-created comedy series.
It all started in 1989, when Gallo got a late-night call from his pal Frank Pesce, a movie buff and streetwise character in his own right whose life story provided the gist for the Gallo-directed “29th Street.”
Pesce told Gallo he had to see “Across the Bridge,” an unsung 1950s film noir based on a Greene story. It starred Rod Steiger as a crooked German industrialist who, while escaping to Mexico, exchanges identities with a man who turns out to be wanted for murder. He even takes the man’s dog, who turns out to be his only trustworthy friend.
“I started cracking up watching it because here’s this guy who’s in trouble for one thing, and when he tries to be crafty, his good idea just gets him into deeper trouble,” explains Gallo. “It’s a classic comic premise and I could really identify with it, because it’s like so many things I’ve done in my life, trying to be smart and just getting myself into worse trouble.”
When Permut saw the movie, he had the same reaction: It was a “gold nugget.” It’s no surprise that over the last six decades, 16 Greene novels and stories have been made into films; the novelist had a natural cinematic touch. Permut acquired the rights to “Dolores,” a 1938 Greene short story that was used as the basis for “Across the Bridge.” (Dolores is the name of the dog in both films.)
One writer did a treatment for the film; a second writer began work on a full-scale script. By then the film was at New Line Cinema, where Permut had a producer deal. Gallo, having befriended De Niro while shooting “Midnight Run,” spoke with the actor about the project as a possible vehicle for him and Al Pacino.
But in 1994, Permut filed a $35 million lawsuit against New Line. His projects there all went into limbo.
Then in 1998, Permut saw an Annie Leibovitz photo of Chris Rock and Chris Tucker, posing with a tiny Chihuahua. The savvy producer saw a poster for a new kind of buddy movie.
Permut showed the Rock-Tucker photo to Gallo and said: What does this remind you of? Suddenly “Across the Bridge” was alive again.
As luck would have it, Steve Longi, who runs Permut’s production company, heard “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner on the radio promoting his film and naming Gallo’s “Midnight Run” as one of his all-time favorites. Within weeks, Permut and Gallo pitched the film to Ratner.
After Ratner signed on to direct, Permut took the Tucker-Rock-Ratner concept to Tom Rothman at 20th Century Fox. He gave Rothman the Leibovitz photo and told him he had Tucker and Rock attached to the project, even though Permut now admits, “I didn’t have Tucker at all, but I figured as long as we had Brett involved, I was as close to getting him as anyone.”
What happened next is the murkiest chapter in the film’s history. Gallo wrote the script, but Permut’s producer deal never closed.
With Fox out, Permut contacted Todd Garner, then co-president of Disney Films. Garner canceled his lunch and read the script. By mid-afternoon, he’d agreed to make the picture. Ratner was out, having committed to make “Family Man.”
The Tucker-Rock pairing never materialized, but the studio went ahead, keeping the film in the $25 million budget range by hiring lesser-known talent. (Griffin and Jones are each making $500,000 for the film.)
Gallo saw that as a chance to throw his hat into the ring. He pitched himself to then-Disney chief Joe Roth, who had made “29th Street” at Fox. Roth told Gallo that if he could persuade Garner he was the right man, he could direct the movie. Gallo went in and pitched his heart out.
Of course, three days later, Roth left Disney. Then Gallo had a tooth removed and ended up in bed for a month with serum sickness. Two weeks before filming started, Garner left the studio too. Gallo thought the picture was doomed, but new Disney chief Peter Schneider got solidly behind the film.
Disney has been promoting the movie heavily with both young moviegoers and African-Americans audiences, hoping it has a hit similar to “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” the studio’s PG-13 Rob Schneider comedy.
“When kids see Eddie Griffin and Orlando Jones, the last thing they think about is race,” says Gallo. “This movie isn’t about two black guys. It’s about two funny guys who happen to be black.”
