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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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08109921.000
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 22ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTHoney, I Sent the Kids to Oxford
The Disney-Merchant Ivory alliance blends highbrow with no-brow
The fax lines were rattling, the tabloids were tattling, the
gossips were thrown for a loop. Not since Arthur Miller wed
Marilyn Monroe had Hollywood seen so unlikely a marriage of high
and low popular art. This time the betrothed were two companies
recognized as the best in their very different lines of
moviemaking: Merchant Ivory Productions, the independent team
responsible for such stately dramas as A Room with a View and
Howards End, and the Walt Disney Studios, ace hucksters of
no-brow cinema. Disney agreed to co-finance and distribute
Merchant Ivory's films for the next three years.
Studio boss Jeffrey Katzenberg has promised his new
producers total artistic freedom. In Hollywood, though, where
Disney is notorious for tinkering with every aspect of
production, cynics wondered when the honeymoon would sour. And
what films might the Merchant Ivory team make for Disney? The
Importance of Being Ernest Scared Stupid? Three Men and a
Portrait of a Lady? Howard the Duck's End?
Yet the deal made sense from two angles: quality and
quantity. Katzenberg, who thinks today's movies are worse than
ever, was truly touched by the art and heart of Howards End. He
also knows that Disney, like any big studio, needs product, and
Merchant Ivory is the most prolific of boutique moviemakers,
producing over 30 films during their 30-year partnership.
Their first Disney venture, Jefferson in Paris, will be
out next year. If the role of Thomas Jefferson is given to,
say, Merchant Ivory veteran Christopher Reeve and not, say,
Pauly Shore, even Hollywood insiders will agree that this
dangerous liaison could also be the beginning of a beautiful
marriage.