posted 04-16-2001 09:03 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by coyotesix:
they were movie stars?

---

They were movie stars before they sold GWH?

It's all a fog to me.

It'd be interesting to know anyhoo.

posted 04-16-2001 10:51 PM            

watch geronimo.

watch that one persian gulf war movie.

ben affleck was already an indy star.

posted 04-16-2001 11:03 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by LynFitz:
I don't know about the rest of you, but I sure could use a little bit of inspiration. I would like to know what Matt and Ben went through on their way to writing and selling "Good Will Hunting." Did they do any interviews in magazines or anything that we can read?

Thanks in advance.
Lyn

---

Matt started writing Good Will Hunting years ago as a one act play for a university class in Harvard.

During this time he was playing occassional parts in film, like School Ties and Geronimo.

Ben was doing likewise.

When Matt was not gaining the recognition he wanted from his work, he brought the one-act play to Ben's attention and the two of them started to expand it, little by little.

They gave the finished script to their agent, who also had a literary department, and to the agent's surprise, as well as Ben and Matt's, the script became the object of a bidding war between studios.

Within four days, the offer for the script went from fifteen grand, to over six hundred thousand.

But with each meeting they took with studios, Matt and Ben told them that the deal-breaker was them acting in it themselves.

Many studios backed out, others offered more money if Matt/Ben would back out. At one instance they were offered over one million dollars.

They stuck to their guns, and ended up selling the script to Castle Rock for six hundred thousand.

One of the re-writes eliminated a complicated F.B.I. subplot in the script, and made it more of a character story.

But Castle Rock did not greenlight the film, and Matt and Ben weren't finding much acting work, and when they were, their performances weren't getting the attention they deserved, like Matt in Courage Under Fire.

When it became evident that Castle Rock wasn't reading further re-writes and had all but shelved the script, they made Matt/Ben a deal:

Find a studio to buy the script from Castle Rock within thirty days (one that would allow Matt/Ben to act in it), or agree to part from their script and let Castle Rock fill it with 'name' actors.

They agreed and the clock started ticking.

As time was just about up, Ben gave the script to Kevin Smith, who was directing him in Chasing Amy.

Kevin Smith in turn gave it to Harvey Weintein, head of Miramax which was making Chasing Amy.

Harvey loved the script, and bought it from Castle Rock for one million dollars.

But Miramax didn't put the film on the fast track until Matt won the lead role in Coppola's The Rainmaker. Good Will Hunting went on the fast track, and on the really fast track when Robin Williams signed on.

At one point, Mel Gibson was set to direct, but schedule conflicts prevented that.

Gus Van Sant ended up directing it.

And the rest is history.

-P

posted 04-17-2001 06:16 PM            

Castle Rock is indeed correct, not Columbia.

My friends are working fiercely on a Columbia project right now, and being that they both start with 'C', it's a typo.

posted 04-17-2001 06:28 PM            

Chris Moore.