User:Wildroot/The Aviator

The Aviator is a 2004 biographical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It tells the story of the aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, following his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, depicting Hughes' rise as a film producer, love affairs with Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner, the building of an airline, Hughes' fight against Pan Am, censorship hearings on "The Outlaw," and Congressional hearings on the the H-4 Hercules, the largest flying boat ever built. The Aviator also illustrates Hughes' descent into obsessive compulsiveness as a recluse.

Development
Warren Beatty planned to direct and star in a Hughes biopic in the early 1970s. He co-wrote the script with Bo Goldman after a proposed collaboration with Paul Schrader fell through. In the event, Goldman wrote his own script, Melvin and Howard, which depicted Hughes' possible relationship with Melvin Dummar. Beatty's thoughts regularly returned to the project over the years, and in 1990 approached Steven Spielberg to direct Goldman's script, but the outing never materialized. Despite Beatty's hope to make a Hughes biopic, Charles Evans, Jr. purchased the film rights of Howard Hughes: The Untold Story (ISBN 0-525-93785-4) in 1993. Evans secured financing from New Regency Productions, but development stalled.

The Aviator was a joint production between Warner Bros, who handled US and Canadian distribution, and Disney, who released the film internationally under their Miramax Films banner. Disney previously developed a Howard Hughes biopic with director Brian De Palma and actor Nicolas Cage between 1997 and 1998. Titled Mr. Hughes, the film would have starred Cage in the dual roles of both Hughes and Clifford Iriving. It was conceived when De Palma and Cage were working on Snake Eyes with writer David Koepp, who regarded it as being the best screenplay he ever wrote. Universal Pictures entered competition in March 1998 when they purchased the film rights to Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes (ISBN 0-393000-257), written by Donald Barlett and James Steele. The Hughes brothers were going to direct Johnny Depp as Howard Hughes, based on a script by Terry Hayes, Universal canceled it when they decided they did not want to fast track development to complete with Disney, which led to the Hughes brothers, Depp and Hayes collaborating on From Hell. Following the disappointing release of Snake Eyes in August 1998, Disney placed Mr. Hughes in turnaround. Nicolas Cage would still be intrigued by the idea of playing two characters in one film, which led to him starring in Adaptation.

Disney restarted development on a new Howard Hughes biopic in June 1999, dropping the Clifford Iriving angle, and hiring Michael Mann to direct Leonardo DiCaprio, based on a script by John Logan. Disney intended to release it under their Miramax Films banner. The studio put it in turnaround once more following the disappointing box office performance of Mann's critically acclaimed The Insider, and the release of DiCaprio's The Beach. New Line Cinema picked it up in turnaround almost immediately, with Mann planning to direct after finishing 'Ali''.

In January 2000, New Regency Productions, who was previously set to co-finance the Mann-DiCaprio production, announced their own Hughes biopic. Miloš Forman signed to direct with Edward Norton to star in the lead role and Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski writing the script. The project was quickly abandoned because Forman, Norton, Alexander and Karaszewski did not want to compete with the development of The Aviator. "As writers, the problem is we'd have to spend the year working hard before finding out the project across the street has gotten a greenlight and we've wasted our time," added Karaszewski.


 * The Hoax

In early-1998), Mutual Films announced their plans to produce its own film based on The Hoax, Clifford Irving's 1981 book about a fake Hughes autobiography he sold to publisher McGraw-Hill. Mark Gordon signed on to produce the film, but The Hoax labored into development hell. Another Irving biopic emerged from a script written by Rod Lurie, simply titled Hughes The Hoax was not released until 2007. Starring Richard Gere as Clifford Irving, Gordon stayed on as producer.

In March 2000, another Hughes biopic was announced by The Ladd Company when Alan Ladd, Jr. teamed with Hughes' legal widow Terry Moore. A staunch defender of Hughes and antipathetic to many of the published biographies, Moore urged Ladd to tell her version of events in a film project to counterbalance the other biopics, which she believed would focus of the more bizarre and possibly baseless stories that surrounded Hughes. The basis for the film would be two books which Ladd optioned, The Passions of Howard Hughes and The Beauty and the Billionaire, as well as Moore's "life rights". Lester Persky had similar notions of doing a miniseries when he purchased the same rights in July 1994 (see above). The film would have studied Hughes' romantic relationship with Terry Moore compared to his other romances. Ladd commented that he was not interested in Hughes' relationships with Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner or Katharine Hepburn. Moore was considering Jeremy Irons, Pierce Brosnan, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage and Tom Hanks for the lead role. She claims that Travolta, a licensed pilot, and Cage, who took flying lessons, both campaigned to land the role of Howard Hughes. Cage was previously involved with the De Palma-Koepp production at Disney in 1998.
 * Alan Ladd, Jr. and Terry Moore

In February 2001, Charles Evans, Jr. sued New Line Cinema, Michael Mann and Artist Management Group (AMG), claiming that the Howard Hughes project he had nurtured for years had been taken away from him. "No one has worked harder to bring the story of Howard Hughes to the screen in contemporary Hollywood than Evans," Pat Broeske, co-author of Howard Hughes: The Untold Story, asserted. In his lawsuit, Evans claimed to have conceived the idea for a film about Hughes' tempestuous youth in 1993, and spent several years pouring over the details of his life, before securing the rights to adapt The Untold Story for a film. Evans hired actor Kevin Spacey to direct and secured financing from New Regency Productions, which hired Jack Fincher to write a screenplay.
 * Evans lawsuit

Meanwhile, Evans learned that DiCaprio was interested in playing Hughes, and entered into negotiations with DiCaprio's manager at AMG, Rick Yorn. "As a result of these discussions," the suit stated, "Yorn, acting on behalf of DiCaprio, informed Evans that DiCaprio would never join the project as long as any director (ie Spacey) not selected by DiCaprio, was attached." Evans choose DiCaprio to star over Spacey as director, and when DiCaprio settled on Michael Mann as his favored director and made a development deal with Disney, Evans found himself cut out of The Aviator. The suit was eventually settled, with Evans winning the right to a credit as producer, along with Mann and his partner Sandy Climan, DiCaprio, and co-financier Graham King, president of Initial Entertainment Group (IEG).



Yet another Hughes Biopic emerged in September 2001 when it was announced William Friedkin would produce/direct a "feature film or telefilm or miniseries" based on Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters: The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire, written by Richard Hack and based on archive material supplied by Hughes associate Robert Maheu (who would serve as a consultant on the film). When asked about casting, Friedkin listed the usual candidates (Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and Edward Norton), all of whom had already attached to the other Hughes biopics. However, Friedkin soon became embroiled in a court battle with Warner Bros. over profits for The Exorcist. In addition the film rights to Hack's book were eventually purchased by Warner Bros (who agreed to co-finance The Aviator with Disney) subsidiary Castle Rock Entertainment.
 * William Friedkin



Within a few months, Friedkin ceded the director's position to Christopher Nolan, who was also planning to write the screenplay. When Jim Carrey became attached to the Nolan biopic, Michael Mann decided to step aside as director of The Aviator, to which DiCaprio had remained attached since Mann had brought it to New Line Cinema from Disney two years earlier. Mann's decision allowed Martin Scorsese, then directing DiCaprio in Gangs of New York to take over as director of The Aviator. Mann agreed to step aside because the Carrey-Nolan project looked closest to being greenlighted, and he didn't want to hold up The Aviator; when Scorsese said yes, Mann's decision was made easier as a produce. By January 2002, it was obvious that the Scorsese Hughes biopic was closest to being greenlighted and the others were not.
 * Christopher Nolan




 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117857386
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117859132
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117871273
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117877409
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117877678

July 2002: Scorsese plans to reteam with Leo early next year with "The Aviator" for WB (domestic) and Initial Entertainment Group (foreign). It's the story of the young Howard Hughes in Hollywood. John Logan is scripting. As he'd re-created old New York for "Gangs," Scorsese plans to re-create old Hollywood for this epic.

August 2002: At the same time, the DiCaprio negotiation enlivens the race to see who makes a movie about billionaire aviator-turned recluse Howard Hughes. DiCaprio had been expected to play Hughes for his "Gangs of New York" director Martin Scorsese in "The Aviator," a John Logan-scripted film at Intermedia that Michael Mann and Sandy Climan are producing. That film had been awaiting a domestic partner and seemed inches from a greenlight. If DiCaprio instead goes the toga route, that delay creates an opportunity for the rival project set up at Castle Rock. "Memento" maker Chris Nolan is writing it as a vehicle for Jim Carrey.

Production
Filming began on July 8, 2003 in Montreal. At $115 million: "It's the biggest independent movie ever made, unless you count 'Lord of the Rings,' " says Graham King, whose Initial Entertainment is handling foreign on the film and is on the hook for overages. "Would I like to see this made cheaper?" King asks. "We all would. But it just can't be done in a way that we all want to do it. We all want a movie that's just going to blow everyone away." June 2003: With IEG handling foreign and taking the lead on production, Warners and Miramax are splitting domestic, though WB is running point. "Aviator" will take over four soundstages at the Technoparc in Montreal's Mel's Cite du Cinema. In the Pointe St. Charles part of town, construction of sets and vintage plane replicas, overseen by Dante Ferretti (production designer on "Gangs") is also underway in a huge building owned by train car manufacturer Alstom. "Aviator" will also film some exteriors in the Canadian town, including at the city hall which will stand in for a D.C. Congressional building. All told, according to the Montreal film commission, "Aviator" will spend an estimated $40 million in the city, the biggest production in Montreal this summer. The production sked calls for eight or nine weeks of shooting up north, followed by a month or so of location shots in Los Angeles, including at Hughes' former home in Hancock Park (now owned by CAA lit agent Robert Bookman).

April 2004: After much debate, and due to Warner Bros.' tentpole-heavy fourth quarter, Miramax will handle domestic distribution on Martin Scorsese's epic Howard Hughes biopic. Release is set for Dec. 17. Warner Bros. Pictures and Miramax will retain their financial partnership agreement on the film, splitting costs and revenues 50/50 on the domestic release. Initial Entertainment Group's Graham King produced the pic with Michael Mann's Forward Pass. Initial, the majority financier of the $110 million film, also is handling international distribution rights. Warner Bros. will retain theatrical distrib rights in Canada and will distribute the film domestically and in Canada on homevideo/DVD, with Miramax controlling all U.S. television rights. Warner Bros. originally bought North American rights to the pic before production began in July. Since then, concerns about Warner's heavy release schedule -- with "Alexander," "The Polar Express," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Ocean's Twelve" all hitting theaters in the fourth quarter -- prompted discussions about flipping domestic theatrical distribution responsibilities to Miramax. Miramax also will distribute pic in the U.K., France, Italy and Germany, with Initial handling the remaining territories.


 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117881363
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117881792
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117887324
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117887501
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117890988
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117891437
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117900068
 * http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976416
 * http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117914375

Filming ended on 14 November 2003


 * Financed
 * Forward Pass
 * Appian Way
 * Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) (in association with)
 * Warner Bros. Pictures (presented by)
 * Miramax Films (presented by)


 * Distributed
 * Miramax Films (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
 * Warner Bros. Pictures (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (A Time-Warner Company)
 * Buena Vista International (2005) (Germany) (theatrical)
 * Buena Vista International (2005) (UK) (theatrical)
 * Hispano Foxfilms S.A.E. (2005) (Spain) (theatrical)
 * Warner Bros. (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
 * Warner Bros. (2005) (Brazil) (theatrical)
 * Warner Bros. (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical) (subtitled)
 * Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)