After working as an assistant director, around the mid `70s Rudolph wrote a draft of Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson at Altman's request. "I want you to read this book right now. How fast can you write a script?" Altman asked Rudolph. Rudolph found himself writing a screenplay in five days for the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. book, Breakfast of Champions.

"You can't make a movie out of what Vonnegut wrote unless you take total liberty with it." Like so many projects, it never happened, and Rudolph "Didn't even have a copy of the script."

Every year the rights for Breakfast of Champions would be renewed, and Producer X would contact Rudolph asking about his script. "I told them when they found a copy, to get two." One producer did, and sent Rudolph a copy. "I read it and it was embarrassing," Rudolph laughs. He did a re-write on spec, just so the script that's floating around would live up to Rudolph's present reputation as writer/director. Lo and behold, Rudolph's 1998 project is Breakfast of Champions, now that Mortal Thoughts co-star Bruce Willis is attached.

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Nick Nolte does another Vonnegut film

Hollywood Reporter. Nick Nolte is swiftly becoming novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s favorite actor. Nolte, who starred in "Mother Night," a film based on a popular Vonnegut novel, has joined the cast of "Breakfast of Champions," another adaptation of a Vonnegut work. "Breakfast" marks another reunion for Nolte, as the film will be directed by Alan Rudolph, with whom Nolte worked on the current release "Afterglow." Nolte will play Harry Le Sabre, a new-car dealership sales manager who is going through an identity crisis.

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On the Idaho set of Bruce Willis' upcoming film version of Kurt Vonnegut's book Breakfast of Champions, a Willis impersonator managed to find his way onto the set and even sign a few autographs for fans. It was only when Bruce's brother David showed up that the celebrity clone was collared and booted from the set.

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Scoop Feedback:

[Page draft submitted by 'Widgett'.]

March 15, 1998... The budget for the project is reported to be around $9 million. Willis has stated that this is not a "Bruce Willis movie," but an ensemble film. Filming should take place in and around Twin Falls, Idaho and production kicked off February 28th. [Breakfast cereal provided by 'Widgett'.]

An exclusive on-location report has just been sent to CA...

"I'm part of a college dance troupe and we were on tour this last week and for the last two days we were in Twin Falls, Idaho which happens to be where Breakfast of Champions is being filmed. We were really lucky, the day we pulled in they happened to be shooting at the Perkins Restaurant right in front of the hotel we were at. I learned a bit about the movie while I was there, here is what I know:

"The plot of the movie is based (I don't know how accurate) on a novel of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut. In it Bruce Willis plays a midwestern car dealer by the name of Dwayne Hoover and he has a car lot called 'Dwayne Hoover's Exit 11 Motor Village'. I don't really know the story because it was by chance that I stumbled across the book in a book store. But apparently the car dealer is reading the books of a sci-fi author and not believing them to fiction and I'm not quite sure, but I think that Willis' character isn't mentally stable. That's all that I know about the story but here's what little bit of the filming I saw.

"First, when I was coming down stairs to go over to the movie I passed Nick Nolte (whom I assume will be playing the author) in the hallway. He was wearing some raggedy type clothes and his hair was messed up and he had a bath robe on over it. He went to a local store and they said when he first came in they thought he was a bum. Well, I sat outside the Perkins for a good two hours watching what was going on and talking to people. Earlier in the day, the Willis had been dressed like 70s and he has his hair slicked back. I also saw some seats for tables that looked 70s authentic. They also had a set cart full of old wallpapers, so I assume that part of the movie is in the 70s. The shoot went about 5 hrs. longer than it was supposed to according to one of the crew. Then the the next day they began shooting at a local car lot. They put up the sign that said the fictional name and they also put a sign on the side that said, 'You Can Trust Dwayne!'

"When I finally got a chance to see what was going on at the car lot. the crew was set up around a car in which the engine was smoking and Omar Epps (Higher Learning) was standing in front talking to the camera. Off to the side was none other than Bruce Willis in a nice beige/tan suit. That's pretty much all I saw. I know they will be shooting there for at least one month. I was told too that Willis bought a condemned section of town on which they will make a false face and then blow up."

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After discussing "Mercury Rising" and 'Armageddon," Willis turns to his projects for mid/late 1998:

Willis also did a cameo in a Denzel Washington film directed by Ed Zwick called "Martial Law," due out later this year. But he seems most jazzed about the film he's currently wrapping up, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast Of Champions, directed by Alan Rudolph.

"It's got an incredibly stellar cast," reports Willis. "Albert Finney, Nick Nolte, Barbara Hershey, and Glenne Headly, who I worked with in `Mortal Thoughts.' It's one bizarre film."

Rudolph also directed "Mortal Thoughts," which has a special place in Willis's heart. Not only is it one of the best reviewed films of his career, but it co-starred his wife, Demi Moore. When the financing went south on "Mortal Thoughts," Moore stepped up and produced it herself. Of course, Alan Rudolph films are made for a tiny fraction of the budget of a "Mercury Rising" or "Armageddon."

"He's a great storyteller," says Willis of Rudolph. "That's always been the criteria. Fifty thousand years ago there was a guy in a cave who came home and told the best story of how they killed the woolly mammoth. He made it exciting. That guy was the best storyteller in those days. Today we call 'em filmmakers. The only thing you can look to is how well someone tells a story."

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Breakfast of Champions!!!

Just got this report from Twin Falls. As I told you a month or so ago, there is a new Kurt Vonnegut movie on the way. This one is even more daunting than "Mother Night," and also has Nick Nolte in it. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, starring Bruce Willis is underway and well, we have a spy on set. That's right... the blind lawyer that sees everything is on the case, and I place my blind faith in him, so here's Daredevil....

Hi, Daredevil again. Just heard some more news about Bruce Willis' movie BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS (based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel). It's currently being filmed in Twin Falls, Idaho and my brother got to be an extra in it. He told me that he played a convict in the nifty orange jumpsuit and the actual scene took about 2 hours to film. The scene included Omar Epps (THE PROGRAM, HIGHER LEARNING, SCREAM 2) who is in most listings I've seen of the cast.

The person I was surprised to hear about was Michael Jai-White! Yup, the man under the SPAWN mask! My brother said that Mike played the "main character" in the scene and that Epps was his friend. The scene centered around that one of the two (I think Epps?) was getting out and this was their goodbye scene. I guess Jai-White is impressively huge (he benches 575 lbs!), and the deep voice from SPAWN ain't digitally modified. I guess at the end of one of the takes, Mike turns toward the other convicts (my brother says he looks straight at him) and says, "What're you lookin' at?", and it was very intimidating.

Other people who are in the movie: Albert Finney (ANNIE), Barbara Hershey, Nick Nolte, and Lukas Haas (WITNESS, MARS ATTACKS). It should be out in theaters in November.

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Here's a summary of what's been discerned on the newsgroup about the "Breakfast of Champions" movie for those of you who've been out of the loop:

Alan Rudolph, the director, wrote the screenplay. It is based on the book but only loosely. Vonnegut has read the script but we haven't been told any specific feelings he has on it, other than his general stance that he doesn't care much if a film made from one of his books sucks because the book remains as a separate work. WYADUCK has a copy of the script but hadn't read it as of the last time he mentioned it.

Vonnegut appears in the film in a cameo spot, but it is not the scene from the book wherein he reveals himself to Kilgore Trout as his creator. That aspect of the book is not part of the movie. According to WYADUCK, Vonnegut "plays the director of a TV commercial for Dwayne Hoover's Pontiac dealership. The commercial stars Hoover in a caveman outfit, complete with club. I think Kurt said that Hoover loses it when a bird shits on the car during the commercial." Thus Vonnegut's character is apparently a new one invented for the film.

Bruce Willis stars as Dwayne Hoover. Albert Finney plays Kilgore Trout. Nick Nolte plays Harry LeSabre (transvestite car salesman who works for Hoover) in what apparently is a small part. The movie was filmed primarily on location in Twin Falls, Idaho; filming apparently ended in June. It's currently scheduled to be released in November 1998. See the Internet Movie Database for more info.

Many on the newsgroup have expressed some dismay about this entire project. Some are upset that it is a Bruce Willis vehicle. Here's what WYADUCK reports about Vonnegut's feeling on this: "Kurt said that Willis was as nice as could be and wonderful as Dwayne Hoover. Nick Nolte is also in the movie (as Harry LeSabre) and Kurt was jokingly introducing Nolte to people as his 'lover.' (The two have been friends since meeting on the set of   "Mother Night" in '95.)" Others think that BoC is not suitable to be a movie at all, since it is a book about being a book.

Personally, I look forward to it. If it sucks, so be it; but I think it has a chance of being interesting if taken on its own terms as a separate work merely inspired by the book. I thought Willis was excellent in "12 Monkeys" and hopefully he'll turn in a similarly nuanced performance here. Alan Rudolph's body of work is idiosyncratic and inconsistent but always creative and original and as out of the mainstream as Hollywood gets. We'll see!

Your humble info servant,
David Ash

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Crash: A Nice interview with actress Vicki Lewis: "Earlier this summer I interviewed "NewsRadio's" Vicki Lewis. Here's the portion of the conversation where she discussed "Breakfast of Champions."

Q: How does the script for "Breakfast of Champions" compare to the book?

VL: Very close. It's almost verbatim, actually. Vonnegut was there and what a treat, huh?

Q: Who's your character?

VL: I'm Grace LeSabre, the anti-American dream machine who wants to go to Maui and sleep away...

Q: How sexual is the movie?

VL: My scenes were explicit, pretty racy. There's a couple of scenes like that. Glenn Headly has some racy moments. It's out there, you know? It's freaky. And it's the kind of thing you do and then go, "Oh boy, I don't need to see what I just did." At one point, the actor who's playing Harry LeSabre is wearing a dress and I say "Lift up your skirt" and you can just imagine where my head is, you know. He's a cross-dresser and it's all so out there.

Q: Who's directing it?

VL: Alan Rudolph.

Q: You're shooting in Idaho. Is it a rural setting?

VL: Yes, they went to this area of Idaho where it's just used car dealerships that's really, really depressing. I had four scenes and they did them all in one night. That's the only way they could work it out, so I flew from filming "Pushing Tin," which was shooting in Canada. There was a scheduling conflict, so Bruce Willis put me on his jet, and I thought "Oh, I'm going on Air Force One" and it wasn't. It was one of those little planes. I got to Idaho, shot literally around the clock, then flew back to Canada and shot the next day, so I didn't see much of anything.

Q: Who adapted the screenplay?

VL: Alan Rudolph. And Kurt Vonnegut was there.

Q: Did you get a chance to interact with Vonnegut?

VL: No, he doesn't speak much.

Q: He's an imposing guy.

VL: Yes he is (laughs.) And Alan, the whole time I worked with him, he didn't say much of anything. He told me his idea of the character, saying "I think she uses her body at all times. She's doing yoga, the Kama Sutra." I said "Great" and he was quiet for like, 12 hours! And everybody was saying "Alan Rudolph is such a great director" and I thought "He's not talking to me. He hates me!" Then I got back to Canada and there were flowers and this long letter waiting for me from him explaining everything he felt about what I'd done, which was moving, but during the process it was like "Um, he didn't say a word" which was funny, but I guess he was getting what he wanted. At least I found that out."

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Bruce Willis is looking forward to rocking the conventional Hollywood standards with "some of my most bizarre work," on the upcoming "Breakfast of Champions." "This film is kind of outside the Hollywood box," Willis told the Los Angeles Times. "But every once in a while I’ve got to satisfy myself. I can count on one hand and not use my thumb the number of films in the last couple years that I looked forward to going to work every day."

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Bruce Willis is defying his critics and going ahead with plans to screen his ground-breaking film "Breakfast of Champions" for the first time in London later this month.

Although he has been warned that it should be shown in Hollywood for the heads of the major studios, Willis, the first star to take complete control of a film, is insisting on it making its debut at the London Screenings, an informal film market, on Oct 29.

"Showing it in London first kind of levels the playing field," said Willis, who will be selling distribution rights immediately after the screening. "Whoever really likes this movie is going to get it."

"Breakfast of Champions," based on the 1973 novel by Kurt Vonnegut and starring Willis, Albert Finney and Nick Nolte, has already found a place in cinema history as the first film to be completely owned by its star.

It is being seen by film industry analysts as a precedent-setting project that could revolutionise the way Hollywood's major stars do business.

Willis, who normally receives up to pounds 15 million for appearing in the big-budget, studio-made action films for which he is famous, gambled on financing, producing and distributing the film himself, without any studio backing.

Willis bought the rights to the book and put up most of the pounds 7 million it cost to make the film. "I did it to satisfy myself," he said.

But one leading producer, who did not want to be named, said it was "foolish" to launch the film in London.

The film is described by the Los Angeles Times as "combining gallows humour and an oddball sensibility." Willis plays a car dealer who is losing his mind.

© 1998 Telegraph Group Limited | Go back to gossip index

Actor Lukas Haas revealed to TV Guide Online that he plays Bruce Willis' son, Bunny, in the upcoming movie adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. "Bunny is a really off the wall character," the young actor enthused, " ... he's also a lounge singer — it's kind of trippy. My hair's probably a foot high, I have a sequined suit, and I sing in this low, cheesy voice. I got to write the music to Kurt Vonnegut's lyrics, and I got to play and sing live."

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"Breakfast of Champions," which Walt Disney will distribute in North America, is drawing mixed reviews from executives who attended screenings according to Variety. The movie is being labeled "a tough sell for American audiences because it is almost experimental." Frankly, the Insider doesn’t see how you could make a film version of the Vonnegut novel without it appearing experimental…

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Ending weeks of speculation, Walt Disney has acquired the domestic distribution rights to Bruce Willis' independently financed feature "Breakfast of Champions."

It's unclear how much Disney paid upfront for the rights, but sources said that aspects of the distribution pact are as unique as the structure of the film's financing.

According to Disney motion picture group chair Richard Cook, it's unclear whether the film will be released under the Touchstone or the Hollywood Pictures label, but he said the studio intends to distribute "Breakfast" in limited release sometime after the first of the year, probably in the early spring.

Though Cook would not discuss the price Disney paid for the rights, sources close to the project indicated the amount was considerably less than the $3 million that had been floated during the recent London Screenings. However, under the pact Willis and Disney have become profit-sharing partners, splitting profits from all distribution avenues, with the negative reverting back to Willis in the future.

Pic was written and directed by Alan Rudolph and produced by Willis who bought the rights to Kurt Vonnegut's 1973 novel.

Summit Entertainment financed approximatley $ 8 million of the film's reported $ 11 million budget through foreign presales --- an impressive feat for a film without a domestic distributor. Only a select few territiories are available, including the U.K.

Summit covered its commitment with a loan from Imperial Bank, which covered the film's entire production budget and gave Willis and his partners control of North American distribution rights.

Though the original deal called for the cast, director and producers to share in 100% of profits (with Willis receiving the lion's share), Disney now becomes an equity partner, presumably sharing Willis' portion of the backend.

© 1998 Reed Elsevier Inc. | Go back to gossip index

Bruce Willis financed this $12 million film largely by himself, and this is appears to be an attempt by Willis to break out into other types of film other than what has become known as "Bruce Willis movies" ("Armegeddon," "Die Hard," etc.)

Well, this looks like a great first step for Bruce's foray into smaller movies. Kurt Vonnegut has been involved with the film, which gives his fans the credibility, his seal of approval, you might say.

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