| - From Mr Showbiz, October 21st...Director Michael Mann told Access Hollywood that his Howard Hughes biopic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is definitely on.
Out promoting his eagerly anticipated film The Insider, about a 60 Minutes exposé of the tobacco industry, Mann confirmed that the Hughes project was proceeding as planned.
The film will focus on the early years of the studio mogul, says Mann, as opposed to Hughes' last years as an eccentric millionaire holed up in a Las Vegas hotel.
The famous billionaire has already been the subject of several films, including Melvin and Howard, in which Jason Robards played the aging Hughes. Other Hughes portrayers: Tommy Lee Jones in the 1977 TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes, Millennium's Terry O'Quinn in The Rocketeer, and Dean Stockwell in Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
Johnny Depp and Warren Beatty are attached to separate Hughes projects, both of which are in development limbo.
Another onetime project for Mann and DiCaprio, in which Leo would play screen icon James Dean, looks dead in the water. Mann told Access Hollywood, "That project's so backburnered, it's out of the kitchen."
- October, '99...From Esquire Magazine, where they list the 21 most important people of the 21st century.....
Leonardo Dicaprio - Forget his preposterous prettiness. Every so often, thirteen year olds are on to something.
Looking to find a balance between the young performer whose uncanny intelligence and grace took critics by surprise in This Boys Life and Whats Eating Gilbert Grape? and the planetary phenomenon known simply as "Leo", lets just say that Leonardo DiCaprio at twenty-four is by miles the most gifted actor ever to inflame the imagination of millions of adolescent girls. Next, lets note that his fame has made it a faux pas to talk about how talented he is, at least in adult company. But if Beatlemania taught this waning century anything, its that the frenzies of thirteen year olds aren't necessarily trivial. DiCaprio's I-dare-you-to-think-this-is-me impersonation of a cocky young star in Woody Allen's otherwise turgid Celebrity - a performance eerily less self-parodying than coolly observed, and also serving notice that he was a grown-up - was bracing proof of his post-Titanic clearheadedness. Since then, however, he's been absent from the screen, presumably hoping the hubbub will wane but instead turning his next project, The Beach, into an even bigger deal. He's going to have to be terrific in it for the movie not to come off as a letdown. Yet terrific is just what he's usually been, uncommonly free of narcissistic mannerisms even in movies that hyperbolize his presence: His Romeo was more plausible than Brando's Marc Antony, his alienated teens in This Boys Life and Marvins Room were more detailed and perceptive than James Dean's histrionics, and his cunningly contrived variations on high spirits were almost as helpful to Titanic as Gable's nonchalance was to Gone with the Wind. None of his movies up to now have begun to tap the slyness, ambiguity, and potential perversity in his charisma, so you'd love to see him enlist the audience's complicity in a villainous role. Whatever direction he goes in, expect him to surprise you. -
Tom Carson
- By Steve Gorman..September 24th, 1999..
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has settled a $10 million lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to thwart the release of a low-budget film he made before achieving stardom in ''Titanic,'' lawyers for both sides said Friday.
Details of the settlement DiCaprio and fellow actor Tobey Maguire reached with a team of independent filmmakers led by producer David Stutman were not disclosed.
But a brief statement from attorneys said that under the deal, the movie in question, ``Don´s Plum,´´ ``will be distributed outside the United States, Canada and their territories.´´
The settlement bars the film, described by its makers as a ''twentysomething slice-of-life'' tale set in a restaurant, from being shown commercially in the United States or Canada.
The breach-of-contract suit brought by Stutman in April 1998 charged that DiCaprio and Maguire, a lesser-known actor who starred in ``Pleasantville,´´ deliberately blocked release of the movie for ``their own egomaniacal purposes.´´
``Using DiCaprio´s ´clout´ as a newly anointed ´superstar,´ they carried out a fraudulent and coercive campaign to prevent release of the film and destroy its value,´´ the suit said.
The movie, shot during six days in 1995 and 1996, is about a group of friends who gather at a diner one Saturday night for coffee and wide-ranging conversation about everything from drugs to masturbation.
DiCaprio has said through a publicist that he made the film as a favor for a friend with the understanding it would never be shown as a full length picture.
According to DiCaprio's camp, the movie originally was conceived as a black-and-white short with an improvised script.
Stutman, however, maintained that he was approached by DiCaprio and Maguire in 1995 -- two years before the release of the blockbuster ``Titanic´´ -- to make a film starring them and some of their friends.
He said an agreement was reached under which Stutman would produce and finance ``Don´s Plum´´ and all the actors would receive equal billing and equal pay: $575 for each day´s shooting. In addition, the actors would share in the net profits of the movie.
The film was made, and in June 1996 there was a private screening for 150 people, including DiCaprio, who ``expressed his unlimited enthusiasm for the film,´´ Stutman said in his suit.
Maguire and his manager, however, were unhappy with Maguire's performance in the movie, and Maguire subsequently enlisted DiCaprio to join him ``in a campaign to prevent the release of the film,´´ Stutman said his lawsuit.
The suit said that beginning in the latter half of 1996 and continuing through 1998, DiCaprio and Maguire contacted potential distributors for the film and told them that Stutman had no right to release it and that ``DiCaprio was against the film´s release and there would be serious and adverse consequences for anyone who attempted to distribute it.´´
- September 18th...Entertainment Weekly with the 100 greatest movie moments 1950-2000.
DEC.19, 1997
Eighty-five years after the ''Titanic'' sank, the movie sailed full throttle into history books: With a reported $200 million budget and a $1.8 billion worldwide gross, it's the most expensive -- and most popular -- movie ever. Yet, of all that surfaced in 'Titanic's' wake, perhaps the most important was the phenomenon of Leonardo DiCaprio. An unproven commodity, he delivered the moral of James Cameron's epic melodrama: Tug at the heartstrings and you'll be unsinkable. Indeed, a theory that's been proven before. ''I'm convinced,'' says Gloria Stuart, who played Rose, the 101-year-old shipwreck survivor, ''this was on par with 'Gone With the Wind.''
- August 24th,1999 Here is the latest article mentioning the newest Leonardo project Gangs of New York....caution, though, this article contains spoilers!
- August 17, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20th CENTURY FOX'S 'THE BEACH' EXONERATED BY ECOLERT INVESTIGATION
The following is an excerpt from a recent press release by EcoLert:
CULVER CITY, CA, JULY 21, 1999-EcoLert, a non-profit ecological and environmental public awareness and education program, has completed its investigation, subsequent to the numerous reports of damage and destruction to Phi Phi Le (Maya Beach, Bay) and Phuket Islands, Krabi City and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, locations used for the production of 20th Century Fox's 'The Beach' earlier this year. The concern for the ecological future of these locations prompted several inspections, for if any physical evidence collected substantiated these claims, the extensive amount of long-term damages would have been devastating. However, based upon the physical evidence obtained from on-going examinations, testing and research, our results confirm that the ecological make-up of these locations has not been disturbed, nor has any irreversible damage(s) occurred as a direct result from filming 'The Beach' in Thailand.
- August 16, 1999
ENVIRONMENTALIST DICAPRIO HELPS MOUNTAIN GORILLAS FACING EXTINCTION
The following are excerpts from Dian Fossey's Gorilla Fund newsletter DIGITNEWS, Issue 15, Summer 1999:
Last autumn, without notice, Hollywood movie star Leonardo DiCaprio answered DFGF's appeal for the Congolese Parks Authority and donated the full target of the emergency appeal.
"The environment, and environmental issues, are the first and foremost charitable concerns I have focused on," Leonardo said recently, "and I consider myself an environmentalist." Such instinctive support makes a powerful comment on the importance of mountain gorilla conservation.
Dian Fossey said, "Human beings must decide now whether or not the mountain gorilla will become a species discovered and extinct within the same century." In the final months of the 20th century, when the threats to their survival are manifold, her words are more compelling than ever. It is a decisive moment for mountain gorillas.
Leonardo DiCaprio is just one of a growing number of famous, wealthy and powerful individuals who have responded to the cause. In the past 6 months the Fund has raised 175,000 pounds from just 25 individual donors. Invariably, their increasing support has been matched by the growing success of community-based conservation in central Africa.
Dian Fossey maintained, "The gorillas' destiny lies in the hands of those who share their communal inheritance." Now, with a major commitment to long-term finance near at hand, finally, after 30 years of conservation in the Virungas, genuine African ownership of the issues has begun to emerge. A growing force of Congolese, Rwandese and Ugandan conservationists - skilled, committed and funded - have begun to take control of gorilla conservation.
For more info on saving the mountain gorillas see Dian Fossey's Gorilla Website at:
THIS SITE
- June20th, 1999
Hollywood Reporter: Scorsese & Disney Huddle about "Gangs" initiation..
The much anticipated collaboration between Martin Scorcese and Leonardo DiCaprio inched ever closing to becoming a reality Monday when Scorcese huddled with Disney executives to work out a manageable budget for "Gangs of New York " If everythings goes as planned , the long in-development period piece about hoodlums will be Scorses-DiCaprio's next film, with a November start. Depending on the budget, sources said Rome may be the location for the movie, which is set during the era of Tammany Hall's peak of political wickedness. Robert DeNiro is in discussions to star alongside DiCaprio, but no deal has been made..
Sources said Scorcese and his frequent collaborator, Jay Cocks ( worked with Scorsese on Age of Innocence) recently turned in a rewrite that includes a love story. Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth and Mike Ovitz, head of AMG which reps Scorsese and DiCaprio, discussed the project at last week's Allen & Co conference in Idaho.
If the project should come together ,this will mark the first major package for the fledging AMG....
- July 5/99...Scorsese to Make 'Gangs of New York' (from the Hollywood Reporter)
Warner Bros. has given Martin Scorsese a window to make Disney's Gangs of New York before he shoots Warners Dino. Readers will recall that Scorsese was contractually obligated to direct his next picture for Warners, but wanted to shoot Gangs first. Now he is putting together the budget for Gangs and is also in heavy talks on the project with Leonardo Di Caprio, who is attached to star. Warners turned down a co-production offer from Disney to split rights on Gangs some time back, and Disney is now awaiting a rewrite before it green-lights the film. Gangs, written by Scorsese and frequent collaborator Jay Cocks, is the long-in-development story about Irish mobsters in 1840s New York, which recently grabbed the interest of Robert De Niro as well as Di Caprio (HR 2/4). Dino, adapted by Nick Pileggi and Paul Schrader from 'Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams,' teams the Raging Bull filmmaker with Tom Hanks for the first time and tells the life story of legendary crooner and hard liver Dean Martin. Hanks is planning to do Dino after he completes the Robert Zemeckis-directed Castaway. He and Scorsese expect to shoot the picture in the first quarter of 2001, subject to Hanks' schedule.
- By John Burman, Hollywood Reporter 6-15-99
Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson step up to the front of the line, while Julia Roberts is the only woman to stroll into the top 10 in The Hollywood Reporter's 1999 Star Power survey. The survey provides a subjective look at the bankability of more than 500 actors and actresses worldwide.
Hanks leapfrogs to the No. 1 slot with a perfect 100 score followed by Gibson, who rises a notch from the 1998 survey results with a global score of 99.44.
Tom Cruise, who claimed the No. 1 spot in last year's survey, is right behind with a 99.05 score.
Rounding out the top 10 global finishers are Harrison Ford (98.69), Jim Carrey (97.22), Leonardo DiCaprio (96.85), John Travolta (94.74), Roberts (94.63), Robin Williams (94.44) and Brad Pitt (94.22), as determined by the Star Power '99 voters.
"We looked at all the criteria that one looks at in launching an event film," she says. "You definitely want someone who you feel has enough notoriety and a publicity ramp to get you where you want to go.
Additionally, the real stars of a successful film sometimes may not even be the actors, but rather the director, producer, writer, set designer, cinematographer or a combination of all these factors.
Fine Line Features president Mark Ordesky says audiences seeking independent-minded films with challenging themes are less inclined to demand a star in the film to get them in the theater, though financiers sometimes feel differently.
"The audience needs something distinctive and memorable," he says. "And to the extent that you have that, there is less of a need to have a star. The more challenging the story, sometimes the financier wants that star (or stars). The stars help them raise the money. ... None of us are fortunetellers, of course."
The editors and film reporters of The Hollywood Reporter compiled the list of 500-plus names (of which 150 appear here) that were included in the worldwide Star Power '99 survey. While not all-encompassing, the list is meant to reflect a broad range of actors and actresses.
The confidential global survey, while subjective, polled a cross-section of 135 studio and independent executives, distributors, producers, bankers, financiers, buyers, sales agents and others involved in the buying, selling, distribution and exhibition of movies around the world, and in key individual territories.
The questionnaire asked respondents to rank the actors and actresses on subjective criteria provided by The Hollywood Reporter. Leonardo DiCaprio's well-documented, swift rise to an industry power player following "Titanic" is perhaps the best example of instant superstardom in these media saturated times.
- May 11, 1999 LEONARDO DICAPRIO MAKES CONTRIBUTION TO INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRUGGLE IN COLOBIA
In honor of three environmental and indigenous rights activists who were tragically murdered two months ago in Colombia, Leonardo DiCaprio has made a contribution to the U’wa Defense Project - a lead group in the struggle to stop Occidental Petroleum from oil exploration on the land of the indigenous Colombian tribe. The U’wa have threatened to commit mass suicide if Occidental persists with its plans which would dramatically alter their cultural integrity and the fragile eco-structure of their land.
24-year-old, Los Angeles native Terence Freitas, Minominee Nation humanitarian Ingrid Washinawatok, and human conservationist Lahe’ena’e Gay, traveled to the U’wa territory to learn more about U’wa culture and spirituality, and to organize support from the international community for culturally-appropriate educational projects.
As stated so movingly in his memorial program, "As Terry was leaving the physical world, he visited the U’wa Werjayas, the wise ancients; and the Karekos, the medicine people, in a dream. The U’wa said he gave them a tool, a white snail shell, which symbolizes peace and problem solving. May Terry’s urgent plea spread from the sacred land of the U’wa, from Kajka Ika, the heart of the world, throughout the earth. May people everywhere respond to this tragedy by working to preserve life, peace, indigenous culture, and the dignity of the planet."
Leonardo’s family enjoys many friends in common with the Freitas family, and it is in Terence’s memory that the contribution is being made to prevent any further destruction of the U’wa land.
For further information on these vital issues, please log onto the news section of the Rainforest Foundation USA Website at www.savetherest.com.
- Read about Leonardo's recent shopping spree at ToysRUs including the cutest pictures you ever saw! Click here!
- Looks like even Leonardo's attempt to peacefully leave Thailand was a nightmare for him....
Here is an official statement about an incident involving the paparrazzi as he was attempting to leave for home.
April 29, 1999
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
FACT SHEET RELEASE
RE: MISINFORMATION REGARDING PAPARAZZI INCIDENT AT TAIPEI AIRPORT
New York, April 29, 1999 - Leonardo DiCaprio's office released the following fact sheet today to correct the wildly inaccurate stories concerning the incident at Taipei Airport on April 26:
- A horde of photographers, many of whom were shouting vicious and personal obscenities, attacked Leonardo DiCaprio and his party upon their arrival at Taipei's airport on April 26, 1999.
- One of Mr. DiCaprio's friends did curse out one of the most outrageous paparazzi who had continually shouted obscenities directly in the face of Mr. DiCaprio's parents.
- No one in Mr. DiCaprio's party instigated any physical contact whatsoever with anyone at the airport. In fact, Mr. DiCaprio's party sought refuge at the China Airlines VIP departure lounge to escape the aggressive and threatening paparazzi.
- Security representatives told Mr. DiCaprio's party that they would be prevented from leaving Taipei unless Mr. DiCaprio's friend apologized to that particular photographer, who was threatening to sue for being insulted.
- Only to prevent being held because of this ridiculous threat did Mr. DiCaprio's friend apologize to the photographer.
- The so-called security police at the airport did little or nothing to prevent this security threat to Mr. DiCaprio's party and patrons of the airport, and seemed to be cooperating only with the paparazzi. The only time they exerted any authority was when they threatened to hold Mr. DiCaprio's party unless the insulted photographer was appeased.
- Mr. DiCaprio will never submit to threats or intimidation by anyone in the media to pose for a photo or grant an interview.
Clearly, it is the paparazzi who should apologize for their obnoxious and threatening behavior, which was obviously directed at causing a confrontation with Mr. DiCaprio.
We would hope that the media would be far more responsible in supervising the behavior and actions of their employees and representatives, and would be much more careful in checking facts before printing or broadcasting stories concerning Mr. DiCaprio.
We would also suggest that respectable publications and media outlets question the means by which freelance photographers seek to force celebrities to pose, and would not print or broadcast photos or video obtained in ways similar to what occurred at Taipei Airport.
"The DiCaprio's"
This is an example of the original press release regarding the incident...
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Leonardo DiCaprio simply causes a riot wherever he goes.
His bodyguards were questioned by Taiwanese police after photographers angling for a picture Monday in Taipei's airport complained that they shoved and insulted them, Taiwanese television and newspapers reported today.
No charges were filed after the bodyguards, reported to number three or five, admitted inappropriate behavior and apologized to reporters, according to the mass circulation China Times, the entertainment paper Min Sheng Daily and the TVBS entertainment station.
Pictures showed DiCaprio smiling behind sunglasses, a pulled down baseball cap and plastic shopping bag partially hiding his face.
The ``Titanic'' star stayed in the China Airlines VIP departure lounge for two hours Monday until his flight left, the reports said.
The tanned, slim DiCaprio was on his way to Los Angeles from Bangkok after completing shooting of ``The Beach'' on Thailand's Phi Phi Island in the Andaman Sea last week.
Security assigned to other visiting celebrities, including singer Michael Jackson, have also had run-ins with Taiwan's aggressive news media.
- Read about Leonardo's recent brush with death!
- Here is the another project possibility for Leonardo..
"DiCaprio takes Baker's novel to 'Dreamland'
NEW YORK -- Leonardo DiCaprio may be playing another stowaway on a New York-bound boat...
The "Titanic" star's Birken Prods. banner has optioned Kevin Baker's "Dreamland," a sweeping historical novel set in turn-of-the-century New York. HarperCollins published the novel last month to glowing reviews.
The story follows Kid Twist, an Eastern European immigrant who arrives in New York as a stowaway on the same ship as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, who have come to the city to plug psychoanalysis.
In New York, Kid Twist falls in love with Esther Abramowitz, a poor seamstress turned labor organizer.
Along the way, he encounters gangsters, midgets and feminists in an over-stuffed Dickensian narrative that manages to include Tammany Hall corruption, the Triangle Factory fire and the Dreamland amusement park on Coney Island.
Baker, the chief historical researcher for Harold Evans' "The American Century,," is repped by lit agent Henry Dunow and Ronald Bernstein of the Gersh Agency.
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