Studio:
Paramount Pictures (North America); Warner Bros. (International).
Production Company:
R U Dunn Productions.
Project Phase:
In the Can.
Who's In It:
Mel Gibson (Parker); Maria Bello (Rosie); Jean Carol; James Coburn (Fairfax);
David Paymer (Stegman); Gregg Henry; Deborah Kara Unger; Bill Duke; William Devane (Carter);
Sterling Wolfe; Lucy Alexis Liu (Pearl); Kris Kristofferson (Coburn).
Who's Making It:
Brian Helgeland (Director); Brian Helgeland, Terry Hayes (Screenwriters); Bruce Davey (Producer); Steve McEveety
(Executive Producer); Ericson Core (Director of Photography); Kevin Stitt (Editor); Richard Hoover
(Production Designer); Christopher Boardman (Musical Score); based upon the novel The Hunter by
Richard Stark.
Premise: After he is shot and left for dead by his unfaithful wife and best friend, a thief begins to search for his revenge.
Release Date: February 12, 1999.
Developments:
March, 1998... The film gets pushed back from early August to a fall release date.
Comments:
None.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
June 24, 1997... [Page draft created and submitted by 'Deadpool'.]
June 29, 1997... A scoop dropped off at our doorstep informs us that the Richar Stark name is a pseudonym for the writer Donald E. Westlake. [Sent in by 'ehall'.]
October 5, 1997... We're a little behind in getting this info up but here it is: Parker is no more - now the picture is known as Payback. Shooting around Chicago, Gibson-watching has become a daily event covered by the city's papers. On Sunday, September 26 Gibson was injured when a stunt went awry. Apparently he fell wrong when being shot at, and injured his abdomen. He was checked out at a Chicago hospital, found to be fine, and was back at work the next day.
Filming reportedly wraps in Chicago on October 14, and then the production moves to Los Angeles.
[Scoops sent in by these wondefully patient people: 'Wax Estatic', 'bobo', Christian, 'idezine', 'tipitina', Dawn, 'cpa', 'mcgillj', and our wonderful anonymous friends.]
On the set of the production, 'Tipitina' fills us in on some interesting creative directions the show's screenwriter/director (Brian Helgeland of L.A. Confidential and Conspiracy Theory writing credit) and the director of photography (Ericson Core of 187 credit) are collaborating on together. [Scoop by 'Tiptina'.]
Some interesting background material about the movie and Stark book:
"Payback is a remake of the novel 'The Hunter' by Richard Stark, aka Donald Westlake. It was previously filmed and came out in 1967 under the name Point Blank and starred Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. It was directed by John Boorman and had some scenes shot at Alcatraz. By the way, the pseudonym, 'Richard Stark' was also the name used by the character in the novel and movie of Stephen King's The Dark Half, where a writer authored lurid and violent pulp novels under the Stark moniker, obviously in tribute to Westlake." [Thanks to an anonymous scooper for the info!]
...and this scooper follows-up:
"Richard Stark's 'The Hunter' was the basis of John Boorman's 1967 classic Point Blank, although in Point Blank Parker's name was inexplicably changed to Walker. My opinion: Point Blank is a classic. Who needs a new version?" [Thought dropped by Andrew.]
November 16, 1997... Someone who claims to be close to the production's source drops a few cookies in our basket. The character's name has been changed to Porter instead of Parker (which doesn't explain why the film's title is still the same to us, but hey, we're not there). Principal photography is scheduled to wrap sometime this week, and, the scooper tells us, "Mel's character in Porter makes Lee Marvin's in Point Blank look like a girl scout -- for better or worse." [Sent anonymously.]
November 22, 1997... Ah -- now it's clear to us. Our anonymous scooper writes again to clear up our confusion with the above scoop. Gibson's character is called Porter in the film; we assumed the character's name was changed to Porter before filming began, which confused the hell outta us why the film would be using the working title 'Parker'. Anyway, the film is called Payback, and unless Mel changes his character's name to that, the confusion has been all cleared up. [Thanks to our anonymous friend.]
January 6, 1998... Payback is now scheduled for an August 6, '98 opening date, giving Mel-o-philes two doses of the actor next summer (see Lethal Weapon 4 for the other one.)
February 12, 1998... Did you know that Paramount is processing the film in a special 'bleach process' to give the negative a sepia tone? It's true. It's supposed to be a rather expensive and time consuming process, and it's used by students in film school on 16mm black and white films...except they have to do it by dipping the film into Clorox in the bathtub for 8 hours. [A bleached scoop provided by 'Weez'.]
Meanwhile, we've been told the trailer for the picture is being released right now. What can you expect? Well, glad you asked:
"The trailer for PAYBACK with Mel Gibson came out last week, and it ain't that hot. It's very simple, and at times, too simple. But such is often the case with advance trailers.
"Anyway, the music playing the whole time is some swing song called 'Ain't Love a Kick in the Head' or something. The whole point of the trailer is to show you that Parker is a bad ass, but everyone around him are badder asses. A quick breakdown:
"Title card: 'Meet Parker'
(Shot of Mel picking someguys pocket)
Title card: 'His girl'
(Girlfriend smacks a seated Mel)
Title card: 'His partner'
(Some guy does some more damage to Mel)
Title card: 'His dog'
(Puny dog growls at Mel)
Title card: 'With friends like this...'
(Various scenes of Mel getting the crap kicked out of him)
Title card: 'Who need enemies?'
(More beatings)
(All intercut with shots of Mel actually doing some damage, including a
sequence where an Asian gang in a van pulls up to his cab, and opens fire on him.
He jumps out, but the van bashes him into a wall. But Mel magically emerges
from underneath the van, and kills them all.)
"All in all, the trailer gets a little old and very repetitive, although you get the feeling that Mel thinks its pretty cute. The humor is mostly derived from watching and hearing Mel make funny faces and noises as people beat him up. I dunno; if you liked that wacky scene in Conspiracy Theory where he uses his feet to escape the hospital while taped to the wheelchair, you may find it funny.
"The only other notable thing about the movie is that the negative was run through a bleaching process to give it a sepia tone, and therefore (supposedly) more of a 'noir' type of feel."
[Thanks to 'Pozzo' for the score.]
February 16, 1998... An anonymous source tipped us off first to the movie's Official website a few days back. Nestled at the domain www.paybackmovie.com, the site's still under construction but presently offers you the chance to download three versions of the film's trailer (reviewed in the previous scoop.) Sorry, Mel Gibson's phone number isn't yet provided. [Thanks to our anonymous friend who's hip to these things.]
March 12, 1998... We're told the film will be scored by Christopher Boardman. [Anonymous.]
May 5, 1998... Scoop sent to us from an anonymous tipster:
"This film is testing poorly. Notice that the buzz on this film is pretty subdued? That's because Brian Helgeland's pic is in trouble. The execs aren't pleased with the outcome of this film at all. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? People are obsessing over how the studio's going to market THE TRUMAN SHOW. They shouldn't worry -- that movie's good -- this one isn't." [Anonymous.]
September 8, 1998... "I just watched a screener of the film two nights ago" our scooper begins their movie review with. "Mel Gibson tries to play a bad guy, but at the same time he has to be rooted for as a hero, because he's Mel Gibson. I think this is why the film is probably testing poorly, as you reported." If you want to read the remainder of our scooper's review of Gibson's forthcoming film Payback, you'll have to swipe your mouse over the section below: it's filled with HEAVY SPOILERS.
"Porter is his name, just Porter, nobody knows his first name...Brian Helgeland obviously tried for a film-noir feel, but it just failed somewhere, for me (L.A.
Confedential's greatness seems not to have come from him; the man who wrote Nightmare on Elm Street 4). Gregg Henry's performance is great. He could
just as easily have been from one of those old film-noirs, but Mel just didn't impress me. The beginning of the film, in the version I saw, was really bad.
"The opening sequence of his day's work stealing is interesting - like seeing Mel Gibson take money out of some homeless man's hat, and sticking his fingers down the
guys throat, gagging him, when the man tries to get it back! When he comes home, he finds his wife in bed with her heroin needle. He takes it away, but she finds
another one and ends up overdosing. Then he lies down next to her, and then she's alive again - its a flashback dream of a heist job gone bad, where the $140,000
($70,000 of it his) that was stolen in the heist, is stolen from him (this fuels the rest of the entire film).
"The film is preceeded with the definition of the word 'principle.' Which is subtly explained in James Coburn's scene, as why he goes to all the trouble he does, for only
$70,000. Mel says 'I just want my money back.' It's the principle of thing; he earned the money, it was his, he wants it back.
"By the end of the film, he gets the money back, only to get shot in the process, and end up letting a homeless man pushing a shopping cart take it from him.
By this point I was hoping the film would end this way, allowing me to give my respect for an unconventional ending...but Porter ends up with his new girl driving across
a bridge (the Golden Gate?) to see someone he knows about the gunshot wound that he looked like he was dying from..."
November 9, 1998... Pozzo returns, but this time he's changed not only his tune, but his orchestra as well.
"Well, I managed to weasel my way onto the Paramount lot and into a screening of the finished film, and I have to say that I was WAY off base in being so critical. So...a quick review: First off, the version I saw (which IS the final version) has a much different ending than what is described in the previous review. That ending was dumb, the new one is great. Secondly, the entire film seems like one of those great late 60's/early 70's actions flicks with Steve McQueen, with some Noir elements tossed in. And it WORKS. Every ascpect of the film works well: the 'Peter Gunn-esque' theme, the washed-out blue tone of the cinematography, the overdone characters, the 'every-city' setting, the violence...oh...the violence..I don't know how Helgeland did it, but the violence in this film is so crisp and fresh...yet nostalgic too. And there's a LOT of it. Lots of blood, lots of broken bones, and lots of bullet holes in peoples chests/legs/faces. Not a film for the squeamish. Mel is a total bad ass, and does a great job of being a likeable heavy. The supporting cast is good too, especially the Asian girl from Ally McBeal as a dominatrix. The humor works, the plot twists are fun and unpredictable, a satisfying ending, etc, etc. All I can say is that I had a really fun time at this movie. It's a grat change of pace from the cartoonish violence of this summer's action fare (LW4, Godzilla, Zorro) This is a tough film for an audience that likes tough bad guys beating up tough bader guys." And there you have it, folks. [Special thanks to Pozzo, a professional screening-weaseler.]
November 10, 1998... In today's scoop feedback we get to see how the genesis of Helgeland's idea changed into the film you'll probably see. Now we can't say for certain that a lot of what Mr. Scooper below claims to be actually happened -- but a lot of the things we've been hearing about Payback suggest that it's got the potential to be a dark, action-filled fast ride, but the studio's been wary of how to market Mel Gibson playing a darker character -- and Gibson himself seems to be having second doubts that his audience would pay to see him in this sort of role.. We're sure audiences will see Gibson being a bad-ass, just as long as the movie is entertaining -- so why meddle with a good storyline? Ah, if it were only that easy to convince everyone that everything would be alright...
" Anyone who read the original shooting script to PAYBACK knows it had a chance to be a great little crime film. Basically, Helgeland wrote a a tight script that gave us a Mel Gibson we've never seen before: a total badass, the kind of character movie buffs love and test audiences hate. Well that's where the problems started- at the test screenings. Everyone was happy with the film, it was exactly the movie that Helgeland, and supposedly Gibson, wanted to make. But after a couple poor test screenings, Gibson panicked. He decided that his fans didn't want to see him play a unlikable guy and demanded that Helgeland make serious changes to the film. Helgeland refused, claiming that Gibson knew what he was getting into at the start, and that the changes Gibson wanted would seriously damage the film. Gibson won out, of course, and a new screenwriter (Terry Hayes) was brought in to change the entire third act. Helgeland was so upset with the changes that he refused to direct the new scenes, so Gibson, finding a loop hole in the DGA rules that say the producer of a film can't hire himself as the director, hired his hairdresser to direct the new scenes and simply called the shots through him. Helgeland was rightfully enraged, so enraged that he asked both the Writer's Guild and the Director's Guild to let him take his name off the new version. He lost his case, however, because both guilds have rules saying that if you're paid over a certain amount of money, you can't remove your name from the credits . So Helgeland lost and the big bad star won. What does this mean for us, the fans? That we're going to see a crappy, watered down version of what could have been a classic. The really sad part is that Helgeland and Gibson went into this project as friends, and now they despise each other. So if you see this movie in the near future and hate it, remember, don't blame Helgeland, blame Mel Gibson and his gigantic, non chance taking ego."
[Thanks to 'The Mayor of Shark City' for awarding us the key to their 'hood.]
But no sooner after receiving the first scoop we received this one. Sent to us by one of our most trusted spies, they've been hearing some solid things about how Paramount is preparing to market the film. Could the film be reverting back to its earlier cut? "The film has been getting great buzz from advance sceenings given to press here in L.A. and out in New York. They're saying that the violence is 'hip'. Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean.
"Also, look for the 1-sheet Teaser out soon. It's got Mel (what else) pointing a gun off to the right. He looks real young, like Mad Max-young.
"But the best part is the tagline. It makes me realize that Paramount has got a real goot handle on the film, and the marketing should be real good. The line? 'Get Ready To Root For The Bad Guy'."
[Yo, 'Pozzo', we missed ya. Yer a goodfella.]
December 27, 1998... With the movie now scheduled for an early February '99 release and it being the height of the Christmas film season, you think talk about this movie this early by the mainstream media would be non-existent, right? Uh uh.
Premiere magazine's latest issue features an article on the film, talking with the film's stars and asking questions about Helgeland and Gibson's supposed problems and different cuts of the film. We've touched on some of that in earlier scoops, and the Premiere article presents a more official approach to the controversy. Here's one of our scooper's emails about the new changes and what the Premiere article had to say about who directed the new scenes:
"You have to have heard this by now, but just in case...Part of the changes that were made to Payback after Helgeland's booting are evident in both the film's trailer and the next issue of Premiere. The trailer: Kris Kristofferson is in it. Apparently his entire character and throughline were added by Gibson and Terry Hayes. Premiere adds that KK is playing a new crime boss character (the first crime boss was a woman, they say, but don't specify if they just mean Deborah Unger or the vexing Asian dominatrix), that there are at least two new action set pieces (a sledgehammer torture and a limo trunk escape) and that the new scenes were directed by, to quote Gibson, '...a guy. He came in. It wasn't me.' Obviously he and Paramount can't say who for DGA reasons (or maybe the hairdresser's guild would have a problem, too), but none of this will matter if the flick is a hit. The trailer is pretty cool, less Mel-bashing than the first one I saw about nine months ago. Judging from audience reaction, as well as my own, this looks like a winner...although Premiere does end their article by saying Gibson's version tested worse than Helgeland's." [The very cool 'Sardonicus' finally wrote us a note, which pleases us to no end.]
Jeesh. So were the reshoots really that important? According to our sources, yeah. Angie Dickenson's uncredited cameo as the mob boss is completely out; Kris Kristofferson now plays the part. The trailer that were avaliable for downloading on the film's Official Web Site was yanked earlier this month with no explanation (or a new trailer) provided. One of our scoopers theorizes it may be one of two reasons: 1) The old trailer was never sepia tinted, giving the film its dark, edgy look, or; 2) the old trailer contained scenes from the last third of the original version of Payback that are no longer in the latest cut. Studio marketing people, are you listening? So what was really the true story behind the reshoots? We've heard comments ranging from "Helgeland blew his first directing gig" ('DPW'), to studio execs uncertain whether they should stand behind a film where Mel Gibson isn't a cut-and-dry hero, to feuds between Helgeland and the star. The real truth may be an illusion; everyone involved with the production seems to have their own views on where the first cut of the film went awry, and sorting it out will prove to be a difficult task. Still, that's why we're here, and besides that, we'd like to have answers to some questions: why was Dickenson's cameo removed and then refilmed with Devane? Who was the 'guy' that directed the reshoots Gibson refers to in the latest Premiere magazine? What's Helgeland's thoughts on the new version of the film? And, judging from the recent tag line used on the film's poster, has Warner Bros. marketing finally accepted the fact that Gibson's Porter is a baddie??
[In addition to those listed above, we'd like to thank Roz, 'C', Pat Duff and anonymous for helping us seperate the wheat from the chaff.]
As reported in earlier updates, the new version of the film had test screenings, reports of which made their way onto the 'net. 'Pozzo' reported about it earlier and there have been reports from Ain't It Cool as well as the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which is where the following review came from:
"There was a screening of Payback (PAYBK), the Mel Gibson (MGIBS) starrer, at Paramount this past week. Even with only about fifty people in attend ance, word spread far and wide as soon as the lights came up. I have only heard good words about the film. And not just good and kind comments, but great comments. Certainly, it was much better than they had anticipated.
"In the film, Gibson plays a man who was shot and left for dead by his unfaithful wife and disloyal business partner. Years pass and Gibson's character returns to seek his revenge. Word has it that he is absolutely fantastic in playing a character that isn't all that likable. One person I spoke with who attended the screening went so far as to say Gibson's character is 'mean.' No release date has been set for the Warner Bros. (WBDX) film. Originally, word was the film had tested very poorly and wasn't all that good. It looks like director Brian Helgeland, Gibson and producer Joel Silver were able to pull it together in the end to make what is rumored to be a fun movie."
[Sent in by 'The Anonymous'; originally appeared on the Hollywood Stock Exchange.]
January 3, 1999... Some confusion on our part muddled up the fact that it's Kris Kristofferson who now plays the crime boss. Previously that role was played by Angie Dickenson, which in the earlier version of Payback before the reshoots were done was a 100% off-camera voice over. Oops. [Thanks to anonymous.]
January 5, 1999... We're pretty sure you'll be able to figure out for yourself whether or not you'll see this person standing in line come Payback's opening day...
"In the fall of '98, I attended a special screening of John Boorman's Point Blank at the New York Film Festival. It was a pristine 35mm widescreen print that oddly enough belonged to Martin Scorsese. Anyway...during the Q&A session, Mr. Boorman shared anecdotes about Lee Marvin and the making of PB. When asked what he thought about the Mel Gibson remake, he replied 'Thirty years ago I remember sitting in Lee's apartment talking about the picture, we had a couple of drinks. I finally got 'round to asking him what he thought about the first draft of the script. Lee's only response was to hurl the script out of the bloody window. He was right, the thing was just dreadful. I imagine a very young Mel Gibson was walking down the street at the same time and picked up that god-awful thing...Does that answer your question?' It certainly answers mine. Remakes suck!" ['Kevy-Kev'.]
The Tag Lines:
"Get Ready to Root For the Bad Guy."
"Get Mad. Get Tough. Get Even."
Official Web Site: www.paybackmovie.com