Ironic postscript
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,316838,00.html#
When Saturday Night Live alumnus Christopher Guest set out to direct his first movie, The Big Picture, he had every reason to be optimistic. His film-industry spoof — about a director trying to make his first movie — had a good cast (including Kevin Bacon and Martin Short), the backing of a major studio president (David Puttnam at Columbia), and a small but workable $5 million budget.
But once the project was cleared to start production, the problems began. ''Two weeks later, Puttnam was out and Dawn Steel took over,'' Guest says, and the turmoil at the studio made The Big Picture an orphan. ''We were left alone to make the movie we wanted, but once we finished it, they didn't know what to do with it.''
Eventually, Columbia did open the movie in a handful of theaters, to mixed reviews. But because almost no effort was made to promote it, Guest complains, most moviegoers never even knew The Big Picture existed, much less had a chance to see it for themselves.
Until now. When The Big Picture arrives in video stores this week, it will, for all practical purposes, enjoy its world premiere in living rooms around the country. Guest says he finds it ironic that The Big Picture can now be seen only on the small screen.
What I find even more ironic is that this kind of studio politics is the same thing that happened to the protagonist!
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