Michael Cimino | |
|---|---|
 Cimino in 2003[1] | |
| Born | Michael Antonio Cimino (1939-02-03)February 3, 1939 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 2, 2016(2016-07-02) (aged 77) |
| Education | Michigan State University (BA Graphic Arts, 1959) Yale University (BFA Painting, 1961; MFA Painting, 1963) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1972–2016 |
| Partners |
|
Michael Antonio Cimino (/tʃɪˈmiːnoʊ/chim-EE-noh,[5]Italian:[anˈtɔːnjotʃiˈmiːno]; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. Notorious for his obsessive attention to detail and determination forperfection, Cimino achieved widespread fame withThe Deer Hunter (1978), which won fiveAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture andBest Director.
With a background in painting and architecture, Cimino began his career as a commercial director in New York before moving to Los Angeles in the early 1970s to take up screenwriting. After co-writing the scripts for bothSilent Running (1972) andMagnum Force (1973), he wrote the preliminary script forThunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). The latter became his directorial debut and one of the highest-grossing films of that year.[6]
The accolades received for co-writing, directing, and producingThe Deer Hunter led to Cimino receiving creative control ofHeaven's Gate (1980). The film became a critical failure and a legendarybox-office bomb, which lost production studioUnited Artists an estimated $37 million. Its failure was seen by many observers as the end of theNew Hollywood era, with studios next shifting focus from director-driven films towardhigh-concept, crowd-pleasingblockbusters. More recently, however,Heaven's Gate has undergone a dramatic reappraisal, even being named byBBC Culture as one of the greatest American films of all time.[7]
Cimino made only four subsequent films and grew infamous for the number of projects left unfinished due to his uncompromising artistry.[8] In 2002, Cimino claimed he had written at least 50 scripts overall.[9] Several of his ambitious "dream projects" included adaptations of the novelsConquering Horse,The Fountainhead andMan's Fate as well asbiopics oncrime bossFrank Costello and Irish rebelMichael Collins.[10]
Cimino publicly shared few details of his early life and family background and is believed to have given false birth year information.[11][9] Many Cimino biographies thus include inaccuracies about his early years, as well as his background in filmmaking.[12][13][14]
Cimino's presumed birth date was February 3, 1939.[15][16] A third-generationItalian-American,[17][18] Cimino and his two younger brothers, Peter and Edward, grew up with their parents in the town ofWestbury, onLong Island.[19] He was regarded as a prodigy in early private education, but rebelled as an adolescent by consorting with delinquents, getting into fights, and coming home drunk.[20] Of this time, Cimino described himself as
"always hanging around with kids my parents didn't approve of. Those guys were so alive. When I was fifteen I spent three weeks driving all overBrooklyn with a guy who was following his girlfriend. He was convinced she was cheating on him, and he had a gun, he was going to kill her. There was such passion and intensity about their lives. When the rich kids got together, the most we ever did was cross against a red light."[21]
His father was a music publisher.[20] Cimino says his father was responsible for marching bands and organs playing pop music at football games.[9]
"When my father found out I went into the movie business, he didn't talk to me for a year," Cimino said.[20] "He was very tall and thin... His weight never changed his whole life and he didn't have a gray hair on his head. He was a bit like aVanderbilt or aWhitney, one of those guys. He was the life of the party, women loved him, a real womanizer. He smoked like a fiend. He loved his martinis. He died really young. He was away a lot, but he was fun. I was just a tiny kid."[9]
His mother was a costume designer.[9] After Cimino madeThe Deer Hunter, she said that she knew he had become famous because his name was inThe New York Times crossword puzzle.[20]
Cimino graduated fromWestbury High School in 1956. He entered Michigan State University inEast Lansing, Michigan. At Michigan State, Cimino majored in graphic arts, was a member of a weightlifting club, and participated in a group that welcomed incoming students. He graduated in 1959 with honors and won the Harry Suffrin Advertising Award. He was described in the 1959Red Cedar Log yearbook as having tastes that included blondes,Thelonious Monk,Chico Hamilton,Mort Sahl,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,Frank Lloyd Wright, and "drinking, preferably vodka."[22]
In Cimino's final year at Michigan State, he became art director, and later managing editor, of the school's humor magazineSpartan.Steven Bach wrote of Cimino's early magazine work:
"It is here that one can see what are perhaps the first public manifestations of the Cimino visual sensibility, and they are impressive. He thoroughly restyled theSpartan's derivativePunch look, designing a number of its strikingly handsome covers himself. The Cimino-designed covers are bold and strong, with a sure sense of space and design. They compare favorably to professional work honored in, say, any of theModern Publicity annuals of the late fifties and are far better than the routine work turned out onMadison Avenue. The impact and quality of his work no doubt contributed to his winning the Harry Suffrin Advertising Award at MSU and perhaps to his acceptance atYale University."[22]
At Yale, Cimino continued to study painting as well as architecture and art history and became involved in school dramatics. In 1962, while still at Yale, he enlisted in theU.S. Army Reserve.[11][19] He trained for five months atFort Dix,New Jersey, and had a month of medical training inFort Sam Houston,Texas.[11][20] Cimino graduated from Yale University, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1961 and his Master of Fine Arts in 1963, both in painting.[11][20]
After graduating, Cimino moved to Manhattan and was given a job byPablo Ferro with a small company that produced documentary and industrial films: "They taught me how to use aMoviola. I operated the Moviola and swept the floors and I was hooked — I decided to become a filmmaker."[23][24] During this time, he also took ballet classes and studied underLee Strasberg at theActors Studio once every week in order to better understand how actors performed.[25][26]
Within eighteen months of directing TV ads, he was hired by Madison Pollack O'Hare to work on special assignments involving "graphic design concepts and unusual approaches to live film".[28][13] While there, he handpicked the best cameramen MPO employed to shoot his commercials, includingGordon Willis andOwen Roizman, before either rose to fame.[29] He directed ads forL'eggs hosiery,Kool cigarettes,Pepsi,Canada Dry andMaxwell House coffee, among others.[30][20][31] "I met some people who were doing fashion stuff – commercials and stills. And there were all these incredibly beautiful girls," Cimino said. "And then, zoom – the next thing I know, overnight, I was directing commercials."[20] Few of Cimino's early commercial work survived.[32]
One of his more successful commercials was shot forUnited Airlines in 1967. Taking a song called "Take Me Along" from theshort-lived Broadway musical, he created an ad in which a group of housewives plead, musically, to their husbands to take them along on their business trips.[29] The commercial is filled with the dynamic visuals, American symbolism and lavish set design that would become Cimino's trademarks. Later that year, he made his most famous commercial; forEastman Kodak, called "Yesterdays", which went on to win several awards that year.[33] The elaborate commercial took six days to shoot — two on an intricately built set in New York and four on location inConnecticut. Cimino apparently shot close to eight thousand feet of film, which was whittled down to 2 minutes.[30][34] Although the ads he made were considered among the most prestigious in the industry, they became increasingly costly. "The clients of the agencies liked Cimino," remarked Charles Okun, his production manager from 1964 to 1978. "His visuals were fabulous, but the amount of time it took was just astronomical. Because he was so meticulous and took so long. Nothing was easy with Michael."[31]
At the height of his commercial career, Cimino met Joann Carelli, then a commercial director representative, and the two began to date.[35][20] Encouraged by Carelli, Cimino began to write screenplays, despite no background in writing.[36][37] To be more prolific, Cimino sought out collaborators to work with, including poetThomas McGrath and playwrightDeric Washburn, who had produced a one-act playoff-Broadway.[38] Washburn later recalled that there was always a big distance, socially, between him and Cimino:
"I remember trying to get to know him a little better. A friend had a house inPoughkeepsie, and I invited him up for the weekend. He shows up in hisRolls-Royce, and he's not comfortable there. But he wanted something from me, I think. Mike and I got closest when we started talking about a story. Then it was amazing. It was like one person. It was like a dance. We could boil together."[39]
Thomas McGrath and Cimino co-wrote two scripts together,Paradise andKef.[40][41][42] McGrath also gave Cimino a copy of the 1959Frederick Manfred novelConquering Horse, tracing the history of theDakota Indians in America before the arrival of the white man,[43] which Cimino would go on throughout the rest of his life to try and make into a film.[44]
By 1970, Cimino's agentMichael Gruskoff was approached with an offer from studio executiveNed Tanen to produce a slate of low-budget films forUniversal Pictures, withConquering Horse among them.[40][45] The estimated budget for the film had gone far over what initially was projected, and would have cost Universal substantially more than their cut-off figure of $1 million to produce it. Moreover, Cimino wanted to shoot the film inblack-and-white and use authenticSioux dialogue, with subtitles.[43] Shortly after the project was cancelled, Gruskoff assigned Cimino to help draft the script for a story outline byDouglas Trumbull for hisscience fiction filmSilent Running, and he brought aboardDeric Washburn to help. The two morphed the script to be morecountercultural.[46] However,Steven Bochco was later brought in and rewrote the story to be less bleak and more "accessible" to a mainstream audience.[47]
The following year, Cimino and Joann Carelli moved toLos Angeles where they rented a house inHidden Hills that belonged to British directorJ. Lee Thompson.[48][21] Carelli told Cimino that the only way he would be able to direct a film is if he wrote an original screenplay and got the biggest star in Hollywood to agree to be in it. Cimino, who had never written on his own, began by writing stories about people he knew about.[37][49] From this habit, the script forThunderbolt and Lightfoot was born, which first began as a period story about the Irish outlawfolk heroes Capt. Thunderbolt and Capt. Lightfoot.[50] Cimino gained representation from Stan Kamen of theWilliam Morris Agency, who urged him to make it a contemporary story.[51] Taking both their advice, Cimino took the spec script toClint Eastwood, who loved it and wanted to direct it himself.[37] Cimino told him that it wasn't for sale, and that he would have to direct the film or else there was no deal. Eastwood agreed, but under one condition: "I'll give you three days. If it doesn't work, I'll get another director."[52] He also asked Cimino to finishJohn Milius'script treatment for theDirty Harry sequelMagnum Force, which had a set shooting date.[50] WhenMagnum Force was in production, Cimino was looking at various locations inMontana and preparing forThunderbolt and Lightfoot. "We traveled a lot," said Cimino, "especially around theGreat Falls; in the banks of theDearborn and theMissouri; in the fields of wheat, east of Great Falls."[53] In the film, Eastwood plays an agingKorean War veteran who, in the words of Cimino, "has lost his zest for life" and runs into an "exuberant, freedom-loving kid" (played byJeff Bridges), who restores his youth.[50] Bridges, for his part, felt hugely unprepared for the role, but was quickly reassured:
"Mike looked at me, and said, 'You know that gameTag?' 'Yeah,' I said. 'Well... you're it,' Mike told me. He went on to say that this guy, Lightfoot, was no one other than me, that I couldn't make a mistake, or a false move, even if I wanted to. I've never forgotten that bit of direction that that young director gave me on his first movie, that gift of confidence."[54]
George Kennedy andGeoffrey Lewis were also cast to star in the film, chosen for the primary reason that neither actor had ever done comedic roles before. Cimino had since compared their chemistry in the film to that ofLaurel and Hardy.[50] The film shot from July to September with a schedule of forty-seven days on a budget of $4 million. Cimino was careful to make Eastwood happy by keeping things moving quickly and efficiently. "I knew that the only way I could keep control of the movie was to be ahead of schedule," he said.[55] Eastwood was impressed enough with Cimino's work that he allowed him to finish it his way.[37] "I owe such a debt to that man," he later said of Eastwood.[56] The film became a solid box office success at the time grossing $25 million[57] and earned Bridges anAcademy Award nomination forBest Supporting Actor.[37]
With the success ofThunderbolt and Lightfoot, Cimino landed a deal atUnited Artists to write and directThe Fountainhead, based onAyn Rand'ssprawling novel about an architect who refuses to compromise, which he had loved for years.[58] He sent his script toElliott Kastner, who was going to produce,[59] and his first choice to play the character of Howard Rourk was Clint Eastwood.[60] Taking its cue from more than the novel, Cimino's modern-day adaptation was largely modeled off of architectJørn Utzon's troubled building of theSydney Opera House, as well as the construction of theEmpire State Plaza inAlbany, New York.[61][62] "Making it a contemporary story meant that there was a lot of new work that had to be done [in adapting]," he said.[63] According to Cimino, Eastwood turned the film down over concerns of being compared to his idolGary Cooper, who had played the same character in the1949 film adaptation.[49][64] Over the years he continued to try to get it made, approaching different funding sources with copies of the script and each time rewriting it in the process.[49]
He then worked for a year and a half atParamount Pictures on a film from his original screenplayPerfect Strangers. Cimino described the film as a political love story that bore "some resemblance toCasablanca, involvingthe romantic relationship of three people."[63] The film was sold to the studio as "a romanticZ" and was to starRoy Scheider,Romy Schneider andOskar Werner in the lead roles.[65] Cimino said they had come very close to doing it:
"We'd already shot two weeks of pre-production stuff, but because of various political machinations at the studio, the project fell through. This was just beforeDavid Picker left. He was the producer. There were internal difficulties, that's all. Nevertheless, I'd spent a year and a half of my life on something. It had been a difficult time. My father passed away while I was writing the screenplay. I kept working..."[63]
Around this time he also spent two years developing two projects for20th Century Fox.[66] One film,Pearl, based on an unpublished book he wrote,[67] was to be a musicalbiopic about singer-songwriterJanis Joplin.[63] Cimino conceived the film's story with producerMarvin Worth and collaborated on the script in association withOscar-winning screenwriterBo Goldman.[68] The film was made several years later under a rewritten script titledThe Rose, with Joplin's name cut out after her family denied the producers the rights to her story. While Goldman received screenplay credit for his work, Cimino did not. Then, after meeting withJames Toback, the two began work onThe Life and Dreams of Frank Costello, a biopic chronicling four decades of the life ofMafia bossFrank Costello.[63] Cimino saw the mobster asGatsby; to him, he had a vision of America.[66] "We got a good screenplay together," said Cimino, "but again, the studio, 20th Century Fox in this case, was going through management changes and the script was put aside." Cimino added, "Costello took a long time because Costello himself had a long, interesting life. The selection of things to film was quite hard."[63] He also did a rewrite for United Artists ofFrederick Forsyth'sThe Dogs of War to be directed byNorman Jewison, and was briefly attached to direct the film after Jewison left.[69]
The film that came closest to production was an original for Paramount, titledHead of the Dragon, that was set in a "mythicalSouth American country" and revolved around apolo-playingWASP who springs a Mafia killer from jail in order to assassinate a rebel leader. The project was described as Cimino's desperate attempt to come up with something commercial that might stand a chance at being made. With location scouting and pre-production work already three weeks in, the film was cancelled, due to issues Paramount was having with their other big production,Sorcerer, which was being shot in the same country.[70] A month later, in October 1976, Cimino took what he thought would be another routine meeting at a production studio, where he gave a 1-hour pitch (with no script), verbally, toEMI executives for his ambitiousVietnam War dramaThe Deer Hunter.[71][37] To his surprise, they accepted his pitch and gave him a set start date of March 17, later postponed to June.[66][21]
I believe that this research is an integral part of the film; the time spent watching people, talking to them, hitting the road, sleeping in those towns, walking down those streets. You notice things, some consciously, others involuntarily, that otherwise... It really approaches the work of an actor, you absorb a number of details; you notice a lot of things which, in a certain way, find their way back into the film.
Derived from some of Cimino's personal experiences,[66][72]The Deer Hunter tells the story of threeblue-collar steelworkers, portrayed byRobert De Niro,John Savage andChristopher Walken, who during the Vietnam War volunteer to serve together.[23] Since he had to spend the next several months prepping for the film and scouting for locations, Cimino brought inDeric Washburn to help him write the film's script.[71] According to Cimino, he would call Washburn every night and feed him lines of dialogue and scenes to write. When Cimino returned, he was shocked with what he read, recalling that he felt it was written by someone who was "mentally deranged".[71] Washburn, who said he couldn't handle the pressure in writing within the time constraint, left the project. From there, Cimino wrote the screenplay by himself within six weeks. "I had to write the thing on buses, on trains, in cars, at night in hotels, I mean I worked like a dog."[71] Despite this, Washburn received sole writer's credit from theGuild after he went to a lawyer demanding arbitration.[73][74]Roy Scheider was initially considered for the lead role, but after he dropped out,[75] Cimino took the script to Robert De Niro, who insisted that he accompany him for the location scouting.[71] The film also starredJohn Cazale, who at the time was dying of cancer and was therefore considered a liability by EMI.[66] The steel town ofClairton, Pennsylvania used in the film was not shot there, but was instead composed of eight different towns in four states, including several inOhio;Cleveland,Steubenville andMingo Junction.[23][53] Principal photography began in June 1977, but since the film took place during the winter, everything had to be defoliated; the grass had to be browned and the leaves stripped from the trees, which made the film fall behind schedule.[76][66] Many locals from the various towns they shot in played minor roles in the film. "They brought an exceptional characteristic to the film," Cimino said, "[they] had certain facial expressions. You couldn't create that in professional extras."[53] For thedeer-hunting sequences, Cimino had his crew assemble, paint and transport a prefabricatedcabin up to theCascade mountain range.[53][66] He also specifically requested that wilddeer be used, which they had to ship from a specialgame preserve inNew Jersey.[66] TheVietnam scenes were filmed on location inThailand, on the River Kwai and near the Burmese border, and inBangkok,[53] where the conditions were arduous, doubling the film's initial budget of $8 million to $15 million.[20] Once there, Cimino advised De Niro, Walken and Savage that they sleep in their uniforms and never take them off, wet or dry, for the entire month.[77] Because of the unstable political situation in Thailand and the subject matter of the material, Cimino had been warned not to fly the processed footage back in.[76] Cimino agreed not to see anydailies on the condition that "I am going to have every camera we have rolling all the time because there is no coming back here."[66] As a result, the film took a whole three months just to view the footage that had been shot, and another three to edit it down.[66] Cimino's chosen length came in at almost three and a half hours.[78] Universal initially wanted to cut it down to two hours, so that more daily showings were possible. "If we had done that," said Cimino, "We would have lost important things. The first places people attack are those scenes that involve character development. A film lives, becomes alive, because of its shadows, its spaces, and that's what people wanted to cut."[66] Despite its grim subject matter,The Deer Hunter performed well when it opened in December 1978, but quickly aroused controversy, particular for the film's depiction ofRussian roulette, which the characters were forced to play when captured by theViet Cong.[74][23] Even though he had never intended the film to be political (himself referring to it as a story of what happens to ordinary people when they experience tragedy[37]), some critics felt that Cimino was making a "right-wing statement", particularly withthe film's ending.[20] Nevertheless, the film became a massive critical and commercial success,[79] winning fiveOscars, includingBest Picture andBest Director for Cimino.[80]
The day after the Academy Awards, Cimino flew up toKalispell, Montana to begin shooting his Western epicHeaven's Gate, where it had been in pre-production for several months; finding locations, casting five hundred extras and building complicated sets.[23][20] Joann Carelli, who had been a production consultant onThe Deer Hunter, was the sole producer of the film, despite no longer having a romantic relationship with Cimino.[81] An ambitious take on theAmerican Western genre, the film follows aHarvard graduate who becomes a federalmarshal investigating a Government-sanctioned plot to steal land from European settlers inCasper, Wyoming. The origins of the project dated back to a script Cimino had written earlier in the '70s titledThe Johnson County War, based ona rare bit of history he stumbled across when researching the development ofbarbed wire and its use in theAmerican West.[82] At that time, his script was shelved due to its failure to attract big-name talent,[83] such asJohn Wayne, who turned down the lead role.[84] Later, in 1978, after a print ofThe Deer Hunter was screened for the head of production at United Artists, they offered Cimino a two-picture deal.[85] What he wanted to do wasThe Fountainhead, but UA showed disinterest.[86] Instead, he resurrected his screenplay forThe Johnson County War, which he promptly rewrote before it went into production in April 1979 with an assembled cast ofKris Kristofferson,Isabelle Huppert andChristopher Walken. Cimino gave UA the initial budget estimation of $7.8 million, even though the period detail required for the film was astronomical.[84] To authentically re-create the period, Cimino built an entire boomtown on the Montana location and transported a workingsteam locomotive from aDenver museum.[44] He also had less time to prepare the film, since it was given a shorter pre-production period by United Artists to qualify for the December Oscar nomination deadline.[87] Because each setup took such a long time to prepare, by the sixth day of filming the film was five days behind schedule.[88] As withThe Deer Hunter, Cimino was famously demanding of his cast and crew, including cinematographerVilmos Zsigmond, whom he had liked working with before because of his "obstinacy" on set. Second assistant director Michael Stevenson since admitted that Cimino "lost his temper sometimes when people tried to interfere," but that the cast loved working with him "because Michael treated them with respect."[84] When they weren't performing, the actors would take lessons on how to ride a horse, how to practice their characters' trades and how to dance.[84] Even the extras used in the film were all considered with great detail; carefully chosen, dressed and even redressed if Cimino felt it wasn't right. They were also classified into specific groups of immigrants and merchants.[53] "The idea," explained Cimino, "is that you must be able to look at any part of that immense screen and isolate from it any small piece according to your choice."[53] Music arrangerDavid Mansfield noted that the film's immigrant settlers were constantly filling out the background of crowd scenes. "Some bit character might be in the background while the lead actor is in the foreground. So you always see everybody in the community constantly, become familiar with them over the course of the picture."[84] UA nearly ended up firing Cimino as the production budget continued to increase, withNorman Jewison orDavid Lean in mind to replace him.[84] Ironically, a few years later, Cimino would be the first director approached to take over for Lean on the out-of-control production ofThe Bounty.[89] Cimino, however, was intent on "painstakingly constructing his film according to photographs from the time" and immersing the audience into the world created in the film:
"I wanted you to feel what it was like to walk down a street in that period: to follow those noisywagons, to cross all that activity, what you felt, what you heard. People made so muchdust; my God, was it dusty! That makes the streets dirty... when hundreds of wagons go around, they raise dust. And very often, we took the time to record the background sound. In the store, for example, we recorded numerous conversations, with the intention of inserting them into thesoundtrack later. This isn't general background noise; you hear people, in a corner, argue over the price of aknife, discuss the merits of a particularrifle... each of those people are engaged in a very specific activity and you hear them."[53]
Shooting in Kalispell officially completed in October.[90] By that point, $36 million was spent on the production. Cimino and Carelli then worked out a post-production schedule that would involve him delivering a film of three hours on May 1, 1980.[91]
One must love a place to be able to show grandlandscapes on the screen. Nobody showed and made one feelMonument Valley like [John]Ford, although many tried. But him, he loved it, and if he was there and one could pose the question, "Why?", I am certain that he couldn't articulate a response, except to say that he deeply loved that place. When one loves a place, it shows in the images one makes.
After editing the footage shot inMontana, filming for theHeaven's Gate prologue and epilogue began in March 1980.[92] A rough edit of the film ended up screening forUnited Artists in June, running over five hours long.[93] On November 18,Heaven's Gate had its world premiere inNew York City. "I remember going to the New York premiere," saidJeff Bridges, one of the film's stars. "I'm not sure he [Cimino] had seen the movie complete; he was scrambling to put it together."[20] In the 219-minute version that was shown, sound-editing problems in critical scenes made the plot hard for audiences to follow, and Cimino and cinematographerVilmos Zsigmond tinted the film "with a kind of yellow glow" that was supposed to give an antique look,[94] removed in the 2012 restoration.[95] "Afterward, we heard that terrible stuttering applause," said Bridges, "and it was that sinking feeling. We tried to tell ourselves, 'Well, maybe they liked it so much that they are stunned into silence.' "[20] The reviews were devastating.[96] Before the film opened inLos Angeles, Cimino asked for it to be withdrawn and re-edited.[97] In 1981, a shorter version was released, with added narration.[98] A new poster campaign and a submission intothe Cannes Film Festival slate did little to make a dent in financial losses.[99][94] The failure of the film was also blamed for the collapse of United Artists, which was then sold by theTransamerica Corporation, having lost confidence in the company and its management.[100] As a result, UA executiveSteven Bach wrote an entire book devoted to the topic,Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists. Cimino referred to the book as "work of fiction" by a "degenerate who never even came on the set." Bach retorted when he told a reporter he didn't resent Cimino or wish the movie ill: "It would be like wishing ill of a corpse."[9] With its scathing reviews and financial loss,Heaven's Gate quickly became a Hollywood legend.[98]
Cimino intended to follow upHeaven's Gate withConquering Horse through his two-picture deal with United Artists, but was never realized after its failure.[101][102] The film, based on theWestern novel written byFrederick Manfred, would have been a generational saga set in pre-white America that dealt with a youngSioux boy'srite of passage. "It's a story of the AmericanPlains," said Cimino in 1982, "[taking] place inthe Dakotas andMontana."[53] Also at this time, Cimino had been attached as the director ofThe King of Comedy, which he withdrew from whenHeaven's Gate wasgreen lit, but vowed to return to once production ended. The film was first reported in 1979 as a Joann Carelli production,[103] withBuck Henry making revisions to the script.[104] However, by 1981,Martin Scorsese had already entered negotiations to direct.[102] According to Cimino, in his version he would have castAndy Kaufman in the lead role as Rupert Pupkin. "I shotvideotape of Andy for weeks," he said.[105] His version was to have also starredMeryl Streep[106] andOrson Welles.[107]
FollowingHeaven's Gate, Joann Carelli quickly landed him a picture deal atCBS Theatrical Films to directNitty Gritty, described byThe New York Times as "a black comedy about news reporting".[108] The film was scheduled to be released in 1982, alongside a slate of films includingTable for Five, however, Cimino's never went into production, just as with several of the other reported projects. It was later listed as a lost project of Cimino's by theLos Angeles Times, who reported that it had been retitledLive on Tape prior to being dropped by CBS.[109] He also allegedly proposed hisFrank Costellobiopic, then retitledProud Dreamer,[109] to CBS withRobert De Niro in mind to star, but his script was rejected due to the project's budget.[102][110]
In early September 1982, Cimino approached short story writerRaymond Carver and his wifeTess Gallagher (both fans ofHeaven's Gate[111]) to rework a screenplay based on the life ofFyodor Dostoevsky, in hopes that he would direct it.[112] According to Carver, Cimino presented him an existing screenplay commissioned by the veteran Italian film producerCarlo Ponti. The first draft had been written by Russian novelistAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and then translated to English by two Italian writers. Heavily researched, and taking Dostoevsky's near-execution as the film's focal point, Carver and Gallagher opted to rewrite the entire script, delivering a 220-page draft to Cimino in November. Cimino was impressed with the results, but Ponti returned to Europe shortly thereafter, halting further development.[113] Fragments were later published in 1985, byCapra Press.
It will always be people who will interest me, I believe. It's people who give you the urge to make movies, characters. You have an attraction to a character, if he's interesting enough, that's what's important. I don't see myself making a film because it's from a certain genre, except amusical comedy, I would love to make a musical comedy. It provides a special pleasure which tempts me.
In December 1982, after being unable to finalize a deal with directorHerbert Ross at the time,Paramount Pictures offered the job of directingFootloose to Cimino.[114][115] ProducerDaniel Melnick warned him that if the film went over its budget of $7.5 million, Cimino would have to cover the expenses himself and he agreed. Cimino's proposed reimagination of the film, "aJohn Steinbeck inspired musical-comedy"[116] set during theGreat Depression, was to have followed a rich girl fromHouston who falls in love with a dancer from ashanty town.[62] Working fromDean Pitchford's original script, Cimino was at the helm of the film for several months, making more and more extravagant demands in terms ofset construction and overall production.[117] Just when the film was to begin shooting, he asked Melnick to let him rewrite the screenplay for an additional $250,000 and to delay the start date.[118] Melnick fired him,[119] and Herbert Ross directedFootloose instead.[120] According to Melnick, "It might have been a good film [if Cimino had directed], but it wasn't the film we wanted to make. It wasn't the film we came to the party with."[109]Craig Zadan, one of the film's producers, also stated, "Cimino wanted to make a darker film. We wanted to make entertainment."[121]
Several other unproduced projects followed, including a collaboration withSteven Spielberg andGary David Goldberg on a script titledReel to Reel, which he was going to direct forColumbia Pictures,[122][123] and a second collaboration withRaymond Carver on a film which they gave the elliptical title ofPurple Lake.[124][112] The latter of the two was written partly from aCBS documentary found by Joann Carelli calledVisionQuest which was the name of an unorthodoxsocial program torehabilitate delinquent teenagers by sending them on awagon train across theRockies.[125] Cimino also apparently tried to revive hisFountainhead adaptation again, even attracting the interest ofBarbra Streisand for the role of Dominique Francon.[4][126]
In August 1983, afterRonald F. Maxwell was dismissed as the director ofThe Pope of Greenwich Village, Cimino was named as a possible replacement.[127] Cimino wanted to finesse its screenplay with some rewriting and restructuring, which would have taken beyond the mandated start date for shooting. Instead, as a favor to the producers who were on a deadline, Cimino generously went over his copious notes written on the script with the new director they hired,Stuart Rosenberg.[128][129] According toMGM presidentFreddie Fields, Cimino's contributions to the film were invaluable; "He's been a terrific consultant."[130]
In the summer of 1984, an old project Cimino had been attached to finally seemed to be moving toward production.[131] The film wasThe Yellow Jersey, based upon a novel by Ralph Hurne about an aging, woman-chasing professional cyclist who nearly wins theTour de France. The rights had been optioned back in 1973 by film producer Gary Mehlman, who then made a development deal withColumbia Pictures. In 1975, Cimino had been brought on board to direct the film and visited the Tour for the first time, for research.[132] Over the next decade, the film generated expenses of nearly $2 million, and been in development with four studios and several independent production companies. Then, whenDustin Hoffman indicated an interest in starring in it, Mehlman took it back to Columbia in 1983. With Hoffman coming off the success of Columbia'sTootsie, "the film would have gone [into production] the moment he was ready," said Mehlman.[133] By then,Colin Welland andCarl Foreman were brought aboard as scriptwriters, as well as Danish filmmakerJørgen Leth (who had made the 1976 bicycle-racing documentaryA Sunday in Hell), as Hoffman's research adviser.[132] Cimino said that production was long controlled by Foreman, who died in June 1984.[131] The following month, Mehlman, Leth, Cimino, Welland and Hoffman went to France for the Tour, for yet more research.[132] Shooting with the Tour de France was initially scheduled for 1980 and nearly every year since.[131] Welland was still working on the script and hoped to have a draft by October of that year.[132] It has been rumored that Hoffman fired Cimino from the production,[134] although multiple sources claim that the deal simply "fell apart with Cimino".[133] After he exited, none of the replacement directors that Mehlman or the studio suggested were satisfactory to Hoffman, so he too left and the film continued to sink further intodevelopment hell.[132]
After working on a script aboutthe role of Chinese immigrants in the construction of thefirst transcontinental railroad in the American West,[135][136] Cimino finally acceptedDino De Laurentiis' offer to adaptRobert Daley's novelYear of the Dragon into afeature film, due to similarities in subject matter.[56] Cimino accepted under the conditions that the book be nothing more than a point of departure, that he keep the freedom to tell the story his way and to change characters, and De Laurentiis agreed.[56][137] Since the project already had a set start date for shooting, Cimino enlisted the help ofOliver Stone in writing the screenplay. The two apparently did over a year of research for the film, frequentingseveral Chinatown nightclubs and bars each night "to insinuate ourselves into their life."[56][138] "With Michael, it's a 24-hour day," Stone later said of working with Cimino. "He doesn't really sleep... he's truly an obsessive personality. He's the mostNapoleonic director I ever worked with."[20] At this time, Cimino was simultaneously doing extensive work for the production ofThe Yellow Jersey.[132] Several actors were considered for the lead role of Stanley White, includingJeff Bridges,Christopher Walken andNick Nolte.[56] Cimino eventually settled onMickey Rourke after collaborating with him briefly on the production ofThe Pope of Greenwich Village, as well asHeaven's Gate several years prior. "Mickey is a true original," Cimino said of Rourke, "He's like a slugger, a battler... Mickey's likeJoe Frazier andJohn [Lone] is likeAli."[56] Cimino took note of the design of otherChinatowns throughout the world, and used the research to replicateNew York'sChinatown andMott Street for a detailed backlot which was constructed inWilmington, North Carolina. Since its construction, the set for the film has been re-used extensively for other Hollywood film productions. The street was re-created in such extraordinary detail that evenStanley Kubrick (who was born in theBronx), thought it had been the real Chinatown.[56] Cimino, who often liked to shoot interiors in one city and exteriors in another, also filmed parts in New York City,Toronto,Vancouver,Bangkok,Thailand andChiang Rai.[56] Confident that he'd deliver on time and within budget, Cimino had a wager going with De Laurentiis that if he didn't go over budget, he would get the luxuriousMercedes that John Lone's character drove in the film. If not, Cimino would forfeit $50,000 of his salary. "It was four days over schedule, but $130,000 under-budget," said production manager Randolph Cheveldave, so Cimino collected.[138] Upon its release,Year of the Dragon was sharply criticized for what many saw as offensively stereotypical depictions of Chinese Americans,[9][139] but still managed to turn a profit at the box office. Afterwards, De Laurentiis signed a picture deal for Cimino to direct a film adaptation of theTruman Capote novella, "Handcarved Coffins".[140] De Laurentiis had planned to release the film in 1986 following his purchase ofEmbassy Pictures.[141]
In 1986, Cimino accepted the deal to directthe adaptation of the best-sellingMario Puzo novelThe Sicilian, after Dino De Laurentiis cancelled the production ofHand Carved Coffins.[142][143]The Sicilian had been offered previously to directorsFrancis Ford Coppola,Martin Scorsese andBrian De Palma, who all declined.[144] At the time Cimino boarded the project, it initially hadMichael Corleone set up as a character, but due to rights issues, allGodfather references were removed. There had already been a screenplay bySteve Shagan, but since Cimino felt the film needed more "political bite", he brought aboard novelistGore Vidal to help rewrite the script. Around 80 pages of material were added to Shagan's initial draft, either by Cimino himself or Vidal, who later sued theWriters Guild for receiving no credit.[109] According to film criticF. X. Feeney, Cimino's first casting choice forSalvatore Giuliano wasDaniel Day-Lewis,[145] but since he was relatively unknown at the time, the producers suggestedChristopher Lambert, whom Cimino accepted because his name guaranteed financing.[146] During production, Cimino worked closely withUmberto Tirelli (a frequent collaborator ofLuchino Visconti's, whom Cimino admired) on the period wardrobe required for the film. Cimino had specifically requested that he work with him directly during the fitting, much to Tirelli's chagrin, who exclaimed in rage, "Goddamn it! I promised myself when Luchino died that I would never work this hard again!" Cimino said this was the best backhanded compliment he ever received in his career.[49] Filming began inSicily that July, shot extensively in the capital city ofPalermo as well as in the mountains of western Sicily.[143] Soon after production ended in September, Cimino turned in his cut of the film, which ran over the agreed runtime of 105–125 minutes stipulated in his contractual obligation.[143] WhenGladden tried to re-edit the film, Cimino filed a lawsuit to stop them. Cimino's contract granted himfinal cut privilege as well as two test screenings of his longer version, which he was never given.[143] Cimino lost, and the film was released a year later, in October. When released in 1987, the film did poorly, but received some critical acclaim, notably by F. X. Feeney, who saw Cimino's director's cut, released only in France.[143]
In 1987, before the release ofThe Sicilian, Cimino began work on an epic saga chronicling the life of the Irish patriotMichael Collins, based on a screenplay byEoghan Harris. After disagreements with Harris over Collins as a character, his draft was heavily rewritten by Cimino with the assistance ofRobert Bolt, which the two developed inLondon.[147] Their script, now titledBlest Souls, was described by theLos Angeles Times as "a love story set against the backdrop of theIrish rebellion".[109] Joann Carelli assisted with casting for the project; findingSean Bean andTilda Swinton for the leads.[148] Cimino started scouting for locations inEdinburgh,Liverpool and inIreland.[148] While there, him and his team of production managers sought permission from the Irish Government to use their army for the production, which they got.[56]Bono andBob Geldof were also signed on to compose the music.[56][148] The film was backed byNelson Entertainment and would have re-teamed Cimino with hisDeer Hunter co-producerBarry Spikings.[109]David Puttnam ofColumbia Pictures reportedly gave Cimino the green light to begin shooting,[149] however due to the corporate meddling ofCoca-Cola who wanted to go for something decidedly more mainstream, he would be forced to compromise his vision for the film. Instead, Cimino quit, and a separate script byNeil Jordan later resurfaced and was made intoa film in 1996 starringLiam Neeson as Collins. Bolt later admitted he didn't know what came of the project or their script: "Yes, he [Cimino] fled back to America, and all of a sudden, that was that. I don't know what happened."[150]
Less than three weeks after the Collins biopic was cancelled,[151] Cimino started pre-production work onSanta Ana Wind, a contemporary romantic drama set inL.A. offered to him by Barry Spikings. Budgeted at roughly $15 million, the set start date for shooting was early December 1987. The screenplay was written byFloyd Mutrux and the film was to be bankrolled again by Nelson Entertainment. Cimino's representative added that the film was "about theSan Fernando Valley and the friendship between two guys" and "more intimate" than Cimino's previous big-budget work likeHeaven's Gate and the then unreleasedThe Sicilian.[152] However, Nelson Holdings International Ltd. cancelled the project after disclosing that its banks, includingSecurity Pacific National Bank, had reduced the company's borrowing power after Nelson failed to meet certain financial requirements in its loan agreements. A spokesman for Nelson said the cancellation occurred "in the normal course of business," but declined to elaborate.[153] The film, also intended for distribution by Columbia, did not feature any major stars.
Cimino finished out his picture deal with Dino De Laurentiis in 1989 when Mickey Rourke suggested he direct theremake of the 1955home invasion thrillerThe Desperate Hours.[154] The film had been in preparation for several years with directorsChristopher Cain andWilliam Friedkin attached at different points.[155][109] Rourke only agreed to do the film if Cimino would direct it due to his ability to transcend the material, "Michael's one of the few directors able to elevate beyond what an actor's capable of doing."[156] SinceAlex Thomson was unavailable, Cimino enlisted the services of rookie cinematographerDoug Milsome, whom he got to know throughStanley Kubrick. While shot on35 mm film,Desperate Hours is the first of Cimino's works not to be photographed in his preferredAnamorphicaspect ratio.[157] Principal photography began in October 1989 atTrout Lake nearTelluride, Colorado. From there, the production moved toSalt Lake City.[155] Like many of Cimino's works, the film was shot in a variety of locations, mainly inUtah. Although Cimino was allegedly shooting from his own separate script,[158]Writers Guild arbitration established that since the first draft byLawrence Konner andMark Rosenthal (along with the original authorJoseph Hayes), was the one Cimino agreed to, his name was removed from the credit.[155] The interior house from the film, which was also designed by Cimino, was built at the Ventura Entertainment Center inOrem, Utah, with fully constructed rooms in order to create a look and feel ofclaustrophobia.[155] It was also designed "with complete fluidity of movement, in any direction" featuring hidden compartments and passages so that the camera could be placed anywhere throughout the house.[49] According to Cimino, co-starAnthony Hopkins would often get angered by Rourke's unprepared habits and improvisations on set: "Mickey's been shot in the head withBrando. This whole 'I don't have to know my fucking lines' thing. Tony Hopkins wanted to kill him."[159] Filming wrapped that December, five days ahead of the schedule. De Laurentiis took a two-page ad inThe Hollywood Reporter congratulating Cimino for finishing on time and within budget, dubbing the film "a picture of shattering importance."[109][160] After poor previews however, De Laurentiis apparently edited out several scenes, including an intense, eight-minute confrontation betweenLindsay Crouse andKelly Lynch in "a huge, empty football field" because test audiences "read lesbian overtones" into their relationship.[159] Cimino's original cut apparently lasted over two and half hours. The only known evidence of additional footage are from a few stills, which seemingly show a few of them.
In 1991, Cimino participated in that year'sAvoriaz Fantasy Film Festival, where he served as jury president[161] and awarded directorJohn Harrison with theGrand Prix for his filmTales from the Darkside: The Movie.
Following the poor reception ofDesperate Hours, Cimino wrote an original screenplay calledHeaven Is a Sometime Thing which he began submitting to studios circa 1992.[162][163][164] It was conceived with Joann Carelli and told the story of aNew Mexicomine-worker named C.J. who becomes a brilliantgolfer and is estranged from his working-class waitress girlfriend when he meets an heiress and is taken up byhigh society.F. X. Feeney, who helped him with the script, compared it to thetriangle ofMontgomery Clift,Shelley Winters andElizabeth Taylor inA Place in the Sun.[165]The Washington Post reported that Cimino had developed the project atParamount.[162] He later resurrected the script and was able to publish it in France as a short novel.
Taking on "writer-for-hire work" in Hollywood, Cimino wrote an adapted script forClint Eastwood'sMalpaso Productions from the 1993 novelParadise Junction, which Eastwood would have either directed/starred in.[166][167][168] He was also writing a script for filmmakerJohn Woo based on his story titledFull Circle, which Woo claimed would "have a similar style toThe Killer."[169]
In the mid-90s,Oliver Stone encouraged producerMario Kassar to help fund Cimino's ambitiousConquering Horse project.[170] However, as Stone recalled, "He [Cimino] was too difficult to deal with. He was arrogant, and I don't know that he ever gave it up. He never couldeat humble pie or didn't seem to."[171]
There is nowhere in the world that you go that is not interesting, and my approach is to insinuate myself into the culture as much as I can. That's why, sometimes, it's hard for me to remember certain things because when I'm doinggangs inL.A., I'm really into the gang culture. I mean, I got to where I could readgraffiti on the walls. I would go to rap clubs, and I mean, that's all that would be on [in] my car is rap music. And I'd drench myself in the culture, and it's hard to un-drench yourself. And just as you're doing that, you're inserting yourself into yet again a new culture.
In 1995, Cimino was approached byRegency producerArnon Milchan to helmThe Sunchaser, which would ultimately become Cimino's last feature-length film.[172] A spiritual road odyssey, the film starsWoody Harrelson as a Los Angeles doctor who is held at gunpoint by a teenageconvict dying ofabdominal cancer (played byJon Seda), and forced to drive intoNavajo Country in search of a sacred mountain lake with healing powers. The script byCharles Leavitt (which had been offered previously toDiane Keaton andMel Gibson), was virtually rewritten by Cimino.[160] Incorporating elements of his unproduced screenplays for bothConquering Horse andPurple Lake into it, the film had a personal resonance to Cimino; "When I was very young, I was lucky enough to spend some time... with the tribe of theDakota Indians," he said. "I immersed myself so heavily in their culture that, in a way, it became my religion—a religion based on a very simple idea: a stone, a cloud, a rock, everything has spirit, is life.Sunchaser allowed me to return to this."[173]Jack Nitzsche was the original composer but Cimino fired him after the two didn't get on well.[174] Instead, he hiredMaurice Jarre, who orchestrated a bombastic, old-school score.[175]The Sunchaser made its debut at the1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it screened in competition for thePalme d'Or.[172][176] However, unsupported by its distributor, the film was released theatrically only in a few theaters in the southwest, where it played for a week, grossing roughly $30,000 on a budget of $31 million."[177]
Cimino was to follow the film up withAn American Dream in 1997, about the first Asian immigrant to joinAl Capone's mob.Jason Scott Lee was attached to star andThe Hollywood Reporter indicated that the film was to shoot inChicago,San Francisco andSouth Korea.[178][164] That same year, Cimino was reported to directThe Dreaming Place forTrimark Pictures. Originally titledLaw of the Jungle,Variety reported that the film, which was in the early stages of development, was to be a male vigilante story along the lines of Paramount'sEye for an Eye.Rodney Patrick Vaccaro wrote the screenplay under the supervision of Cimino, and Jonathon Komack Martin was to executive produce the film.[179] The planned budget was not revealed, however, it was Trimark's attempt to make a bigger-budgeted film than usual which is ultimately why it was never produced. According to Vaccaro, he and Cimino apparently collaborated on two projects in total together over a period of four years.[180]
In July 1997, Cimino served as president of the international competition jury at the 42nd annualTaormina Film Fest.[181]
As early as 1997, Cimino was attached as the director of a film calledBrasil 1500, planned to debut in the United States under the titleGonçalo, after the main character.[182]Variety magazine incorrectly referred to the film's title as1500.[183] This Brazilian-American co-production intended to portray the events of the day of the arrival ofPedro Álvares Cabral's flagship inSanta Cruz Cabrália on April 21, 1500. Written by first-time Brazilian scribe Fábio Fonseca, the film was to have been told through the eyes of a fictional character (similarly toTitanic), named Gonçalo, a Portuguese sailor from Cabral's fleet.Antonio Banderas was eyed as a possible star, with a supporting cast planned to be composed largely of Brazilian natives.[182] Cimino and producerIlya Salkind were also interested in casting several British actors for the project, chief among them beingPaul Scofield. A budget of $35 million was estimated, with principal photography initially set for January and February 1998.[182] Filming was then pushed back to early 1999, for a planned release in 2000, coinciding with the 500th anniversary ofthe discovery of Brazil. That year, Cimino was in Brazil to choose sets and scout locations, which includedPorto Seguro andPortugal. For research, he read the famousepic poemOs Lusíadas, about the discovery of a sea route toIndia.[184] Speaking at a press conference inLisbon, Cimino said that unlike the films made aboutChristopher Columbus' discovery of theAmericas, this film would follow a young man as its protagonist, "in a story very similar to that ofLawrence of Arabia," he said.[184] He also claimed that an exact replica of Cabral's flagship had been constructed for the production. The film was not made due to producers Ilya Salkind and Jane Chaplin's failure to secure a deal with an international investor.
AfterGonçalo was rejected byWarner Bros.,Paramount andDisney,[182][185] Cimino began to work on writing his first novel, titledBig Jane. Set in 1951, and 173 pages in length, the story follows a "dynamite-looking, six-foot blonde who wears blue jeans, aMiss Universe of muscle," who travels by motorcycle across America and ends up fighting in theKorean War alongside a brigade of women.[9][8] Initially conceived as a screenplay,Big Jane was meticulously translated from English to French and published on September 5, 2001, by publishing houseÉditions Gallimard.[20][185] Cimino later tried seeking interest from U.S. publishers, to no avail.[9] He first appeared with the screenplay treatment (written in prose at novel length), atthat year's Venice Film Festival, where he conducted a staged reading from the piece and proclaimed that the next time he would return with a film made from the story.[186] Cimino was then honored atDeauville, where he received the Prix littéraireLucien-Barrière, an award that previously went toNorman Mailer andGore Vidal. "Oh, I'm the happiest, I think, I've ever been!" he said in response.[9]
In September 2001, it was reported that Cimino would return to the director's chair to makeMan's Fate, a 3-hour epic set against the backdrop of theChinese Communist Revolution. Based on French authorAndré Malraux's1933 novel, the film, as described by Cimino, was to have depicted "the deep, emotional bonds that develop between several Europeans living inShanghai during the tragic turmoil that characterized the onset ofChina's Communist regime." The roughly $25 million project was to have been shot wholly on location in Shanghai in June of the following year and would have benefited from the support of China's government, which said it would provide $2 million worth of local labor costs. The film's producer, Mirko Ikonomoff was in early talks to pre-sellMan's Fate to several European groups, including Italy'sRAI and France'sTF1, but failed in his attempts. ActorsJohnny Depp,Daniel Day-Lewis,John Malkovich andAlain Delon were all in negotiations as possible stars for the project, as well asUma Thurman orNicole Kidman as the female lead.[187][185] After failing to raise money elsewhere, Cimino took his script toMartha De Laurentiis who passed on it. "If you edit it down, it could be a very tight, beautiful, sensational movie," De Laurentiis said, "but violent, and ultimately a subject matter that I don't think America is that interested in." Cimino however, felt differently, "There was never a better time to try to doMan's Fate," he said, "becauseMan's Fate is what it's all about right now. It's about the nature of love, of friendship, the nature of honor and dignity. How fragile and important all of those things are in a time of crisis."[20] In a March 2002 interview forVanity Fair, Cimino called the screenplay "the best one I've ever done," adding that he had "half the money; [we're] trying to raise the other half."[9] Up until his death, Cimino tried to get the film off the ground several times, struggling to secure financing.[188] In what would be his last interview in March 2015, Cimino had said he still hoped to make the film someday.[189]
Cimino was attached to produce the independent filmThe Silk Curtain aboutEmpress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China for 47 years until 1908. Consulina Wong was to have directed from her own screenplay, and was to have starred as Cixi.Jason Scott Lee was also considered for a role. Cimino said he was drawn toThe Silk Curtain by the strength of the characters and "the intimate story about their relationships played out against one of the most tumultuous periods in China's history." The film was to have been produced by COJODA Productions, and a private reading was held at theKumu Kahua Theatre inHonolulu in 2002, but the project failed to pique interest from potential investors.[190][191]
In 2003, Cimino published his second novel, a two-volume work; the first apartially fictitious memoir calledConversations en miroir (English translation:Shadow Conversations) which he co-authored with Francesca Pollock, and the other a short story calledA Hundred Oceans.[192] The latter of the two Cimino adapted from his pre-existing feature-length screenplayHeaven Is a Sometime Thing. Neither this, nor his first novelBig Jane were released inthe states. Cimino has mentioned in interviews that he wrote a third book calledSailing to Byzantium (named after the poem byW. B. Yeats), about a dying tycoon who reflects on his life. He began writing it as early as 1997,[164] and it still to this day, remains unpublished.[20][56][26] Cimino had apparently sent an early draft of the novel to a friend, requesting later that they burn their copy: "I want to hear every page going into the incinerator."[193]
I can't write without placing my characters in space, I need to see in three dimensions inside my head, to have athree-dimensional space. I don't make flat movies. I don't work in a two-dimensional plane, I want to take down the wall of the screen, to bring the public inside the story and the adventure, through their eyes. I need to pre-imagine the film's architecture, the film's space, even the space of the room to create my characters. I need to see before I can write, and if I can't see I can't write. In other words, it has to be real and three-dimensional inside my head before I can put it on paper.
In 2004, afterTerrence Malick exited as director of theChe Guevarabiopic, Cimino apparently pitched himself to direct it.[194]Steven Soderbergh was eventually chosen as the film's director.
In 2007, Cimino was asked byCannes directorThierry Frémaux to contribute a 3-minute short segment for thecollective filmTo Each His Own Cinema, celebrating the60th year of the Cannes Film Festival.[195] The project consisted of 34 short films by 36 acclaimed directors. Representing five continents and 25 countries, the filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre".[196] Cimino's segment depicts a cigar-smoking French filmmaker who films a Cuban pop star's music video in a movie theater. Later, when she is shown the footage, she is angered by his editing decisions and begins to strangle him.[197] While spoken entirely in different languages, the film has no subtitles. But as its title, ("No Translation Needed") suggests, they are not necessary.
In the early 2010s, French film producer Vincent Maraval worked on various projects with Cimino, none of which came to fruition. One film, an original screenplay by Cimino himself titledCream Rises, followed the daily lives of two young female models, (whom Maraval compared toParis Hilton andNicole Richie) who are "completely disconnected from reality" and live a hedonistic life inLos Angeles filled with empty sex and boozing. Cimino wantedTaylor Swift to play one of leads, but since she was unknown at the time, Maraval passed on it. Halfway through the film, the more timid of the two girls is murdered and the other heads to the countryside to find her uncle, "An old cowboy farmer with very Western values", whomChristopher Walken was to embody. "It was something very contemporary," Maraval explained, "About the world of today and its confrontation with the world of yesterday. As if the cinema of Cimino looked at the cinema of today. It was very moving."[188][194] The script forCream Rises was also read by the TV channelArte, who were apparently "enthusiastic" about possibly investing.[198]
Other projects Cimino worked on with Maraval later in his life include a feature adaptation of theTennessee Williams short story "One Arm"[199] as well as a film about the history of America from the point of view of theNative Americans.[200]
At the persistence of Joann Carelli, Cimino meticulously supervised a restoration ofHeaven's Gate frame-by-frame, forThe Criterion Collection, where he restored the original film's color.[201][44] Cimino said, while at first hesitant to revisit the film, that his instincts quickly took over:
"The minute I sat down at the editing console, something else in me took over, and my hands began to work. My brain began to work. And before I knew it, I was working on this restoration, which I swore I would not do... The more I worked on it, the more I became absolutely blown away by the commitment of people likeKris [Kristofferson], and Chris Walken,Isabelle Huppert, all the actors. The intensity that they brought to every moment that they were on film, and off film. I owe a great debt to them because they dedicated the better part of a year to this enterprise. And when we first showed it, of course, inNew York, it was like we all gotguillotined at the same time. And I was always especially upset at the fact that the actors' work was never recognized. You know, for some reason I was singled out."[201]
In 2012, at the69th Venice Film Festival, the restoreddirector's cut was screened and was met with astanding ovation.[202][44] The film was also shown at theNew York Film Festival, a return to "the scene of the crime" said Cimino, where it received subsequent acclaim, even being dubbed by critics as a misunderstood masterpiece.[203][44] Cimino was deeply moved by the positive reception at the film's re-release, "All of those years, I felt likeHeaven's Gate was a beautiful, fantastically colored balloon tied to a string fastened to my wrist, so the balloon could never fly," he said.[44]
In 2015, he was awarded theLeopard of Honour at theLocarno Film Festival, for his life's work achievement.[204] After receiving the award, the following day Cimino took part in a discussion about his career in front of an audience in one of his last public appearances. When asked if he was working on another project, he replied, "Always. I never stop. If you stop, you die."[49]
Cimino was confirmed dead on July 2, 2016, at age 77, at his home inBeverly Hills, California.[205] No cause has been disclosed officially to the public.[206] Since his death, many directors, actors, and other public figures paid tribute to him, includingRobert De Niro,Thierry Frémaux,Edgar Wright,William Friedkin,Paul Rust,Christopher McQuarrie,Kelly Lynch,Jason Reitman,Mark Romanek,Jay Baruchel,Mark Harris andSophie Marceau.[207][208] Film criticF. X. Feeney, a close friend of Cimino's, wrote:
"A few weeks before his death, Michael consulted a physician about a mildrespiratory complaint but otherwise suffered no signs of ill health. When I last had lunch with him on June 19th, he was full of energy and plans. Nevertheless, because he was an intuitive man, I feel certain looking back that he had an inkling his life was drawing to a close. He took deliberate care to mend fences with as many people as he could in the last year of his life, and with me that last day he was more reflective than I'd ever known him to be about his early life. He was full of amused memories centered on his dad's fierceperfectionism. Friends and loved ones found him impossible to reach after the 28th of June, and – when the police entered his house after several days – the officer who found him tucked in his bed described him as "peacefully deceased." His heart had apparently stopped without trauma, in sleep. There was nofuneral or publicmemorial thereafter, and he needs none. Hismonuments are onscreen."[209]
His work has been lauded by such filmmakers asStanley Kubrick,[56]Agnès Varda,[210]Martin Scorsese,[211]Francis Ford Coppola,[23]Miloš Forman,[212]Spike Lee,[213]Guillermo del Toro,[214]Eric Roth,[215]Steven Spielberg,[216]Mark Romanek,[217]Olivier Assayas,[218]Greta Gerwig,[219]Steven Soderbergh,[220]Brett Ratner,[221]David Gordon Green,[222]James Gray[223][224] andQuentin Tarantino.[225][226][227]
The director was the subject of the 2021 documentaryMichael Cimino, un mirage américain, featuring audio recordings conducted by French criticJean-Baptiste Thoret [fr]. Reflecting on the time he spent with him, Thoret said:
"I understood that he [Cimino] had a terrible time inhabiting the present, the reality of the life of every day. Physically but also in his way of thinking: he was always elsewhere. Not in an ethereal or disconnected way. He was in a very precise past and therefore also a bit in a fantasy... he fantasized about a relationship with America, withJohn Ford."[228]
Joann Carelli and her daughter Calantha Mansfield have been the proprietors of Cimino's legacy following his death.[2] According to biographer Charles Elton (who published a book on the late director in 2022), Carelli currently resides in Europe where she spends her time looking for funding for films based on some of Cimino's unpublished writings.[229]
At some point between the releasesThunderbolt and Lightfoot andThe Deer Hunter, Cimino attempted to write an adaptation ofFyodor Dostoevsky'sCrime and Punishment.[230]
In the month before he gave the pitch forThe Deer Hunter, Cimino was briefly attached to helmJames A. Michener's adventure novelCaravans, set in contemporaryAfghanistan.[231][better source needed] The film had spent roughly a decade in development before it was released.[232]
In 1976, Cimino metOliver Stone who offered him the chance to direct his script adaptation ofMidnight Express (before thebook had even been published), which he loved.[62] Cimino declined however, as he was already doing extensive pre-production work forThe Deer Hunter, but the two remained in touch and would collaborate on several other projects.[233] A few years later, he met Stone again, who was optioning his screenplay forBorn on the Fourth of July.Al Pacino was attached to star asRon Kovic. At that time, Cimino was eager to make another film aboutVietnam and the stories of returning veterans, even going as far as to offer to work for free.[26] However, the producer,Martin Bregman, declined.[62] The film was later resurrected in 1989, and directed by Stone himself.
It was rumored that Cimino had been in early discussions with producerRobert Stigwood to directthe adaptation of the musicalEvita atEMI, after he had finishedThe Deer Hunter. However, following the disastrous reception ofHeaven's Gate in New York and Hollywood, a spokesman with Stigwood claimed that Cimino had never been involved withEvita at any capacity and that they "planned to seek a retraction fromTime magazine," which had listed him as the film's director.[234][235]
ProducerDino De Laurentiis purchased the film rights to the horror novelThe Dead Zone afterStanley Donen left the project as director, atLorimar. De Laurentiis approached Cimino to direct, and was very briefly attached but was championed by authorStephen King to be replaced after disagreements over the rewriting of the script when King attempted to adapt it himself.[236]
For a period of time in 1984, Cimino agreed to producePlatoon forOliver Stone, withEmilio Estevez attached at that time to star as Staff Sgt. Barnes.[237] Stone then signed on to co-write Cimino'sYear of the Dragon for Dino De Laurentiis under the condition that he would next financePlatoon as a result. Cimino moved on after the project fell through with De Laurentiis atMGM, and from there the script was passed toJohn Daly and released in 1986. According to Stone, it was Cimino who had encouraged him to bring back his script for the film when Stone had given up on it: "He said 'It's going to come back', and I'm glad he said that."[171]
Around the same time he was doingYear of the Dragon for Dino De Laurentiis, Cimino had a deal to direct a biopic atEmbassy Pictures based on theWilliam Kennedy novelLegs.[238]Mickey Rourke was attached to play the gangsterLegs Diamond, and had told theChicago Tribune in 1985 that, "One side's waiting for a rewrite, the other side's waiting for the money for a rewrite," but felt that it still would be made eventually.[239]Leonard Termo was also attached to the project, as Diamond's bodyguard.
One of Cimino's hopes since first arriving in Hollywood was to helm a big-budget, old-fashionedHollywood musical loosely inspired bythePorgy and Bess opera. In a 1985 interview forCahiers du cinéma, Cimino said that he wanted to reimagine it as a romantic tale of a young, blackGospel-singing girl from the South (loosely based onEva Jessye) who falls for a whiteJuilliard concert pianist (loosely based onGeorge Gershwin). Together, the two struggle to stage aBroadway production ofPorgy and Bess.[62] In the same edition, Cimino discussed his love for the work ofAyn Rand, expressing interest in someday adapting her novelAtlas Shrugged for the screen, in addition toThe Fountainhead.[62]
I'm much more intrigued by a good building than by a good movie. I'm much more interested in a big bridge or a great new novel or a great painting. When I'm asked about my influences, instead of rolling out 20 filmmakers, I sayFrank Lloyd Wright, [Edgar]Degas... [Gustav]Mahler...
Cimino has shown great admiration forLuchino Visconti,John Ford andAkira Kurosawa, dubbing them "The Holy Trinity of movies."[240][241][242] He has also praised the work of film directorVincente Minnelli and "his attention to detail, especially in the musicals."[63][53] He once named his literary influences asVladimir Nabokov,Alexander Pushkin,Leo Tolstoy,Gore Vidal,Raymond Carver,Cormac McCarthy, the classics ofIslamic literature,Frank Norris andSteven Pinker.[8] Cimino also said that he liked to begin research for a new film by reading that country's poets;Li Bo (China:Year of the Dragon) andW. B. Yeats (Ireland:Blest Souls).[56]
In 1992, Cimino participated in theSight & Sound film polls. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Cimino's choices were:[243]
Cimino's films have been noted for their controversial subject matter and striking visual style.[20][64] Elements of Cimino's visual sensibility include shooting inAnamorphic widescreen, painterly compositions, jitterytracking shots and wide vistaestablishing shots that emphasize the Earth's landscape and nature.[244][245] Cimino's films are also slowly paced, focusing less on story and more on characters, allowing the viewer to observe their nuances and the setting.[26] The subject matter in Cimino's films frequently focuses on aspects ofU. S. history and culture, notably disillusionment over theAmerican Dream.[12][246] Other trademarks includelove triangles between main characters, sudden bursts of violence in seemingly tranquil or naturalistic settings and the casting of non-professional actors in supporting roles.[56][3]
Frequent collaborators of Cimino's included actorsMickey Rourke,Christopher Walken,Jeff Bridges,Clint Eastwood,Geoffrey Lewis,Richard Bauer andCaroline Kava, writersDeric Washburn,Oliver Stone,Thomas McGrath,Rodney Patrick Vaccaro andRaymond Carver, producers Joann Carelli,Dino De Laurentiis andBarry Spikings, cinematographersVilmos Zsigmond,Alex Thomson andDoug Milsome, composerDavid Mansfield, and assistant directorBrian W. Cook.[247]
Cimino developed a reputation for giving exaggerated stories about himself, his background, and his filmmaking experiences. "When I'm kidding, I'm serious, and when I'm serious, I'm kidding," said Cimino in a 2002 interview. "I am not who I am, and I am who I am not."[9]
FollowingThe Sunchaser, Cimino became more reclusive; spending the majority of the last two decades of his life retreating to his home inBeverly Hills where he wrote incessantly: "Books and screenplays. Sometimes songs." He even claimed he kept track of how many pages he wrote day-to-day, "One page one day, five the next. Sometimes zero. Those are the hard days because you still have to get your butt in the chair and keep writing."[248][249] Cimino's agent, Mike Wise, called him "theHoward Hughes of Hollywood."[9]
Due to his reclusive habits and fluctuations in his physical appearance, many rumors circulated about Cimino over the course of his life, with several claiming he had dressed indrag, gottenplastic surgery, or even undergone asex change.[9][250] Beginning in 1997, a columnist withVariety magazine devoted an item to dispelling unspecified "reports" that he had changed his name to "Michelle" and his gender via surgery.[251] Cimino explained that he had not had nor intended to have a sex change and that he was not across-dresser,[20] suspecting a former girlfriend of his to have started the rumors.[9] His change in appearance was attributed to weight fluctuations, saying in 2002 that he'd gained weight while editingThe Sunchaser; "They're always ordering food. You're in there [the editing room] for twenty hours a day, seven days a week, getting no sleep."[9] With the help ofSunchaser starWoody Harrelson, Cimino began fasting and lost roughly eighty pounds: "He had me onfat-free foods,yoga, etcetera... I am now back to my college wrestling weight," said Cimino.[251]
In his 2022 biography, titledCimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and the Price of a Vision, Charles Elton claims that Cimino presented as a woman named Nikki during the mid-1990s with the aid of wig seller and cosmetologist Valerie Driscoll, while keeping the public persona of Michael through the end of his life. Elton speculates that "the many versions of himself that he showed to the world created a confusion that helped to hide one of his personae, the one that he had shared with Valerie Driscoll in Torrance, which possibly meant the most to him".[252]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Thunderbolt and Lightfoot | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1978 | The Deer Hunter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withDeric Washburn |
| 1980 | Heaven's Gate | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1985 | Year of the Dragon | Yes | Yes | No | Co-written withOliver Stone |
| 1987 | The Sicilian | Yes | Uncredited | Yes | Script revisions |
| 1990 | Desperate Hours | Yes | Uncredited | Yes | |
| 1996 | The Sunchaser | Yes | Uncredited | Yes | |
| 2007 | "No Translation Needed" | Yes | Yes | No | Segment fromTo Each His Own Cinema |
Known commercials
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Silent Running | Co-written withDeric Washburn andSteven Bochco |
| 1973 | Magnum Force | Co-written withJohn Milius |
| 1976 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Uncredited Script revisions withPhilip Kaufman |
| 1979 | The Rose | Originally written asPearl in 1974 Uncredited; co-written withBo Goldman andMarvin Worth |
| 1980 | The Dogs of War | Initially slated to direct Uncredited draft later rewritten byGary DeVore and George Malko |
Original screenplays (unpublished)
| Year | Award | Category | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award | Best Director | The Deer Hunter | Won |
| 1979 | Golden Globe Award | Best Motion Picture – Drama | Nominated | |
| Best Director | Won | |||
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | |||
| 1979 | Directors Guild of America Award | Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film | Won | |
| 1979 | Academy Award | Best Picture | Won | |
| Best Director | Won | |||
| Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | |||
| 1981 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Heaven's Gate | Nominated |
| 1982 | Golden Raspberry Award | Worst Director | Won | |
| 1986 | César Award | Best Foreign Film | Year of the Dragon | Nominated |
| 1986 | Golden Raspberry Award | Worst Director | Nominated | |
| Worst Screenplay | Nominated | |||
| 1996 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | The Sunchaser | Nominated |
| 2012 | Venice Film Festival | Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent | Won | |
| 2015 | Locarno International Film Festival | Leopard of Honour | Won |
Mark Rydell will direct from a script by Bo Goldman and Michael Cimino and an earlier draft by William Kerby from a story by Mr. Worth and Mr. Cimino.
One great fan was Michael Cimino. After he had madeThe Deer Hunter, he wanted to remakeThe Fountainhead. The powers that be said no, it was too expensive... too intoxicating. So he didHeaven's Gate instead, and destroyedUnited Artists in the process.
I wasn't being facetious about FOOTLOOSE / I worked on it for 6 months. / My John Steinbeck inspired musical-comedy didn't reach the screen.
Cimino also worked with Steven Spielberg and Gary David Goldberg (creator of TV's "Family Ties") on the script for "Reel to Reel," which he was going to direct for Columbia in 1983. But according to Goldberg, the script--based on a semi-autobiographical story by Spielberg, about a young director making his first picture--was never satisfactorily developed. "It became darker under Michael," he recalled.
He has a novel underway, but it is incomplete and dormant at the moment. And last fall, he completed a long screenplay with the director Michael Cimino, about the rehabilitation of juvenile felons.
He tells the story of the project: his first intention was to make a western that would tell the role of Chinese immigrants in the construction of the American railroad, but the project had not succeeded, among other things, because he did not know no Chinese-American actor capable of taking on this kind of role. It is under the impulse of the producer Dino de Laurentiis, that he will adapt the novel by Robert Daley, to make the film "The Year of the Dragon", with Mickey Rourke in the main role.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)DirectorBrian De Palma turned down an invitation to head the jury at the Avoriaz Fantasy Film Festival currently underway in the French Alps, and Michael Cimino took the post. Organizers say De Palma begged off because of a skiing accident.
He is happily working on many projects, including two indies set in L.A. The first is the largest Korean-financed pic, about Korean gangsters in the U.S. during the Al Capone era. The other is titled "The Dreaming Place." He is also writing a screenplay about pro golf. If this isn't enough Cimino's writing his first novel, "Sailing to Byzantium."
Phillip Finch's soon-to-be published "Paradise Junction" was purchased by Rich and Clint Eastwood's Malpaso Prods. The thriller is being written by Michael Cimino. Asked if Cimino would possibly direct the film, Rich gave an emphatic "No."
Also, Michael Cimino's scripting "Paradise Junction" for Clint Eastwood and Rich's banners. Eastwood would direct or star or both.
Another Eastwood project slated for WB distribution is "Paradise Junction," which Michael Cimino is adapting from Philip Finch's book. It's about a tough, working-class guy who gets recruited into a criminal scheme by a bunch of yuppies, but turns the tables on them. Sources said it has not been decided if Eastwood will also helm the project, which the Oscar winner's Malpaso and Rich Prods. acquired together.
About the script that Oliver Stone talks about, a Western in the Sioux language that he wrote for Cimino, he says 'We had found 12, 13, 14 million dollars to do it, he could have done it if he had wanted.' When we see the film we say to ourselves that a part of him still wanted to shoot between '95 and the moment of his death and another part did not want to anymore. When Stone says that a guy who puts so much energy so that a film that could be made does not happen, it almost says something about him, he is right. When you spend time with someone from morning to night, you learn things, a kind of humanity even at times almost a little naive. Like Ford, which he talked about every day.
Actor Jason Scott Lee is about to join Al Capone's Chicago mob. The Hollywood Reporter trade paper indicates the actor will star in "An American Dream," based on a true story about the first Asian immigrant to become a powerful player in Capone's operation. Michael Cimino will direct in Chicago, San Francisco and South Korea.
Among the other projects mentioned by the CEO of Wild Bunch is also One Arm, a dark story of a boxer losing an arm in a car accident.
That of a film which was to tell the History of America from the point of view of the native Americans. "A film about the genocide and then about a life both protected, on the reservations, and humiliated by the good American conscience confronted with the original crime. The film therefore had to be made in their language, otherwise it would have been like a betrayal, but that prevented him from counting on stars, reason for which he could not do it".
Yeah. I mean, "Heaven's Gate" has got some wonderful things in it. Some really, really amazing things. Talk about detail, authenticity, staging. Just staging people in the frame, in a wide frame! It's just phenomenal. But what happened just had to happen. Hollywood's in the business of getting—ideally—a return at the box office. You know, somebody gives you $40 million to make a picture, you should think about making money.
I like large screens. Western America is full of large landscapes and in a way, they require a large screen. If you diminish the ratio, you are limited. That's why a movie you watch on TV is a different movie.
