Can't find Distributor

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John Grisham Movie Can't Find Distributor

Thursday, February 12, 2004

By Roger Friedman


John Grisham Movie Can't Find Distributor

John Grisham is hailed in ads from his book publisher as the best-selling novelist of our time. His legal thrillers like "The Firm," "The Client," "The Pelican Brief," "A Time to Kill," and "Runaway Jury" have all been turned into hit commercial movies.

But now Grisham's latest film, called "Mickey," cannot find a distributor. Instead, Grisham and director/producer Hugh Wilson will distribute the film themselves beginning in April.

It's not like the case of Mel Gibson and "The Passion of the Christ," where no one wanted to touch the movie because of scandal. "Mickey," about a Little League baseball team, is just considered too soft by the studios. Its only star is Harry Connick Jr. Otherwise, the movie is filled with kids who are also real Little Leaguers.

Wilson, who directed "The First Wives Club," created "WKRP in Cincinnati," told me that "Mickey" cost about $6 million to make and that he and Grisham put it all up themselves.

"I'd always wanted to make a picture without studio interference, and now I've done it," he said over dinner at Elaine's -- his first trip there ever in his long career. "It was so nice not to get all those phone calls from studio executives. No interference!"

Wilson and Grisham, who each live near Charlottesville, Va. and shot the film there too -- showed their finished project to studio execs. "We thought someone like Disney would snap it right up," he said. "But the deals we were offered meant not making any money."

Instead, the pair will distribute the movie five cities at a time, leaning heavily on the South and Mid West. "We may never play in New York and it doesn't matter," said Wilson, who is naturally funny. "Just please give us a quote for the ad, like 'It's in color! Or 'Just 92 minutes!'"

By the way, Wilson says that even though he needs to make another studio film soon, his experience with producer Scott Rudin on "First Wives Club" left such a bad taste he'd rather never do it again.

As for "First Wives" star Bette Midler, he said, "When she's live on stage in her show, she's amazing and spontaneous. But when she makes a movie she wants to go over and over each shot and is never happy."

This may explain why, somewhere perhaps, the remake of "The Stepford Wives" may very well still be shooting!