| The Deal | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) DVD promotion | |
| Directed by | Steven Schachter |
| Written by | William H. Macy Steven Schachter |
| Based on | The Deal byPeter Lefcourt |
| Produced by | Irene Litinsky Keri Nakamoto Michael Prupas |
| Starring | William H. Macy Meg Ryan Jason Ritter Elliott Gould LL Cool J |
| Cinematography | Paul Sarossy |
| Edited by | Matt Friedman Susan Maggi |
| Music by | Jeff Beal |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Peace Arch Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Deal is a 2008 Americansatirical comedy film directed bySteven Schachter. Thescreenplay by Schachter andWilliam H. Macy is based on the 1991 novel of the same title byPeter Lefcourt. Macy andMeg Ryan co-star.
The film was shot inCape Town and otherSouth African locations. It premiered at the2008 Sundance Film Festival and was the opening night attraction at theSarasota Film Festival.[1] It also was shown at thePhiladelphia Film Festival, theMaui Film Festival, and theTraverse City Film Festival, among others, but never was given a theatrical release in the United States. It was released on Region 1 DVD on January 20, 2009.
Struggling Hollywoodfilm producer Charlie Berns is actively trying to commitsuicide when his aspiringscreenwriter nephew Lionel arrives fromNew Jersey interrupts him. He gives him a script about 19th-century British statesmanBenjamin Disraeli.
After he sees an article about powerful action-starAfrican American Bobby Mason, a recent convert toJudaism, is seeking a role, Charlie agrees to make the film. However, only after he converts the literatePBS-style script (that he did not read) into anaction adventureMiddle Easternespionage film,Ben Disraeli: Freedom Fighter.
Charlie cuts ties with the agency he has been with to go freelance. Then he creates hype by planting false rumors that get widely published, which successfully attracts Paragon Studios. After some creative wrangling with studio big-wigs and feisty project developer Deidre Hearn, whom he is instantly attracted to, he gets them to commit to making the film without seeing the script.
As Bobby is cast in the title role, when Diedre sees the rewritten script is full of dialogue, she rejects it. After promising to have a rewrite, Charlie boldly asks her about her sex life and relationship status, as he is interested and available. Diedre shoots him down, as she is engaged and is regularly satisfied.
At Charlie and Diedre's meeting with Bobby's manager Mark, at which two potential writers come, the latest script is rejected. Although the film is green-lighted, Charlie says these writers are also fired, happily declaring they should celebrate. Now Mark will have a script shortly and they start shooting in April.
Charlie proceeds to set up production in South Africa. Six weeks later, when the studio sends a man instead of Diedre to assist on production he lies, saying Bobby insists on her. She has purposely been avoiding Charlie. However, Deidre arrives, and she and Charlie shortly start to "hook-up", but are interrupted by Bobby for a frivolity. The next day, after he has a tirade over the script and the shooting, Charlie puts him in his place.
Bobby is kidnapped by terrorists a few days into the shoot, so the film is shut down by CTC, the Canadian company that bought out Paragon. The crew have a farewell party at the hotel, where Diedre's fiancé Glen introduces himself. Diedre has been fired, so she says goodbye to Charlie.
In the morning, as Charlie is again preparing to kill himself, this time with opera and pills, Deidre turns up. She hatches a scheme to produce Lionel's original script "on the Q.T.". Using financing that must stay inPrague, Charlie and Deidre manage to film Lionel's original movie there, keeping further casting and production in Europe so they do not get shut down. An e-mail causes a higher-up to end filming, but a prostitute is used to delay his arrival.
Finishing shooting in the nick of time, Charlie proposes they continue to work together, but Diedre does not think he's brave enough in his personal life. He throws himself on the hood of her departing car to prove her wrong.
The filmBen and Bill goes on to receive sevenGolden Globe nominations, making Charlie and Deidre the newestpower couple producers in Hollywood.
In his review inVariety, Peter Debruge said, "The characters seem to be doing all the laughing, while the general public has nothing to cling to but the horndog flirtation between mismatched leads William H. Macy and Meg Ryan - hardly ideal ingredients for mainstream success . . . Elliott Gould gets laughs as the credit-hungryrabbi pulled in to consult on the film, although a fewA-list celebritycameos in the movie-star roles would have gone a long way toward completing the illusion."[2]
Although Matt Prigge of thePhiladelphia Weekly felt there was "nothing remotely original" about the film, he thought it "just happens to be sprightlier than most, zipping along from one familiar but well-deployed yuk to the next and anchored by the surprisingly winning team of Macy and Meg Ryan."[3]
Michael Atkinson of theBoston Phoenix called the film a "bouncy, sharp-edged farce . . . [whose] target audience is, to some degree, its own cast and crew. Yet it’s difficult to resist when the purely idiotic is openly mocked by a sure-footed cast of line readers led by William H. Macy . . . Meg Ryan gets a somewhat thankless role . . . but the dialogue is fast, and of course the target is a fat, awful, patronizing goldfish in a small bowl begging to be shot."[4]