American Beauty

New Movie Project--American Beauty
Thanks to Mary and Billie, and Margaret as confirmed by Jay Schwartz

Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive (Go to the bottom of the page, pull down the Archives menu and go to Dec. 17, 1998. "Heading Home" is the last item.)

HEADIN' HOME: Scott Bakula is wrapping Toronto shooting of Showtime's "Mean Streak" just in time to be home for Christmas with his family. The former "Quantum Leap" lead also stars in "Tom Clancy's NetForce" miniseries that airs the first week in February,

**and in January he starts the feature film "American Beauty," with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.**

and from Margaret, a couple more details
It's a DreamWorks production, and is a *major* project with a planned wide release.
From your very happy webmistress--a big YIPPEE!

More info on American Beauty,
found by research wiz Mary
The first is from the enthusiastic but rather out of date site, Spaceyland [which I will assume is a fan site]

NEW YORK (Variety) -
(First paragraph snipped)
>Spacey's character decides to liberate himself from a boring job and a loveless marriage, transforming himself into a buff, confident hunk -- but the lives of those around him unravel, with tragic consequences. The DreamWorks black comedy starts shooting Dec. 14 in Los Angeles [according to the New York Times it is already shooting (thanks Mary), according to the Beck/Smith column, Scott starts work in January--Pam]. Mendes directed the Broadway revival of Cabaret and opens The Blue Room in London with Nicole Kidman next week. American Beauty is the first feature script by Alan Ball, who ran both Grace Under Fire and Cybill.

(rest of article snipped)

By Michael Fleming; Variety, September 15, 1998
Also from Mary

In a role that harkens back to her starmaking work as a conwoman in "The Grifters," Bening plays the wife of Spacey’s character, who weathers a cold marriage since becoming a cold-blooded real-estate saleswoman. While he stagnates in his career and life, she has outgrown her husband. Though he undertakes a self-improvement program designed to make him more attractive to his daughter’s friend, she can’t stand him and seeks solace in the arms of a real-estate salesman. As his character quits his magazine job, pumps iron, buys the souped-up car he always wanted and gets a job in a fast-food joint, the couple clashes memorably, giving both Bening and Spacey some juicy conflict opportunities.
thanks to Emma!

October 8

American Beauty Updates
As Scott has such a small role in this movie, I haven't been covering it that thoroughly, but, worry not, Lynne has.
Spaceyland, The Kevin Spacey site (newly upgraded by the way, and very nice!) and a page full of reviews on American Beauty, including a few by Spacey fans.

Box Office from Reuters on September 28
``American Beauty'' remained the undoubted box office star as it jumped six places to No. 5 in its second weekend with $6.0 million from just 429 theaters, up from 16 theaters a week ago. By contrast, the top four films each played at more than 2,500 sites. A spokesman for DreamWorks said he believed it was the first time a movie had made the top five on fewer than 500 screens. The family tragi-comedy stars Kevin Spacey as an ''ordinary joe'' who quits his job, smokes pot and works out in order to impress a schoolgirl. Its 12-day total is $7.6 million.
There is also plenty of talk of Oscar nominations for the main stars and the film itself--Pam

September 15

American Beauty Update
Also, fans who have seen this are reporting that Scott's role has been cut, even from the clips which were shown on Access Hollywood in the trailer, and is under two minutes, basically making it a cameo...
Once again: possible hit movie, tiny glimpse of Scott.

July 3

NY Times Article on "American Beauty"
Thanks to Rose, Barb, and Mary
[quick synopsis--the movie has very good "buzz" and the opening dates are Oct. 1, nationwide; in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto -- late September]

From At the Movies by Bernard Weintraub
In the New York Times 7/2/99

HOLLYWOOD--Forget the summer! The most talked-about film of the moment is "American Beauty," a drama about a suburban family, set to open in the autumn. Although only a few people have seen the movie, the buzz about it has startled even Dreamworks, which made it and has spent the last few weeks debating the details of how and when to release it.
"American Beauty" is the film directorial debut of Sam Mendes, who staged the recent London and Broadway revival of "Cabaret" and directed "The Blue Room" with Nicole Kidman. Mende, 33, a British director, has already been offered several projects by Steven Spielberg, one of Dreamworks' founders, but his next project is to direct a new Stephen Sondheim musical, "Wise Guys," on Broadway.
"I can't quite believe this is happening," Mendes said, referring to the interest in the film.
"American Beauty" stars Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening as an upper-middle-class couple in an anonymous suburb whose marriage -- and lives -- are unraveling. Spacey's character works for a media magazine from which he is about to be dismissed. His wife, an ambitious real estate broker, treats him with indifference, if not contempt, and has her eyes on a successful businessman played by Peter Gallagher. Their daughter, a high school student, barely talks to him.
Their neighbors range from a strict Marine colonel with a near-catatonic wife whose son is a drug dealer to two gay men. In the film, which includes some very funny moments, the Spacey character, called Lester, lusts after his daughter's seductive best friend. He pursues his own personal makeover -- lifting weights, telling people what he really thinks of them -- and, almost happily, pays the price for it.
Spielberg has told colleagues it's one of the best films he's seen in years. After Ms. Bening saw the film, the actress was so overcome that she is reported to have burst into tears.
The movie cost a relatively modest $15 million (the stars and director lowered their fees but will earn a percentage of the profits). The film will be released in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto in late September and then open on Oct. 1 in 700 other cities.
Alan Ball, a successful television comedy writer who wrote the film, said the project began about two years ago when he switched talent agents in an effort to break into movies. His new film agent, Andrew Cannava, at the United Talent Agency, suggested he write a "spec" script to show producers and studios.
"I really wanted a new career in feature films," said Ball, a producer and writer on the television show "Cybill" as well as story editor of "Grace Under Fire."
Ball, who has a new ABC series, "Oh, Grow Up," starting in the fall, said he gave Cannava several ideas. "They were pretty standard romantic comedies, and then I told him a third idea, a film difficult to define but one that interested me," Ball said. "He said, 'Go with the one that you have the most passion about."'
As soon as he finished writing the script, two producers, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who knew Ball, took it to several companies, and Dreamworks immediately expressed interest. "It surprised me," Ball said. "It did not seem to be the kind of script Dreamworks would do. It was a little dark."
Ball, who is 41, grew up in Georgia, attended school in Florida, "waitered tables and hung out on the beach in my 20s," then moved to New York, where he worked as an art director at Adweek magazine. In 1993 he wrote a play, "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress," which was staged at the Manhattan Class Company in Chelsea and caught the attention of Tom Werner and Marcy Carsey, the television producers. They offered him a job as a writer on "Grace Under Fire."
Ball, who is unmarried, said quietly: "This film has some deeply personal stuff. Frankly, I never thought it would get produced."
Mendes said he was offered any number of movies after "Cabaret." "Because I'm a Brit I kept getting costume dramas and anything with royalty," he said. "Spielberg saw 'Cabaret.' He asked for a meeting in L.A. He handed me the script of 'American Beauty.' He said: 'We just bought this. I can't explain what it is, but you've got to read it."'
Like everyone who has seen the film or been involved with it, Mendes said: "It's a difficult movie to describe. When anyone has a go at describing it, it sounds like some dreadful sitcom on speed. It's not at all. It's so filled with loneliness. And beneath the surface it's very funny. I read it straightaway twice. I couldn't quite see how it could be done."
In the atmosphere after the school shootings in Littleton, Colo., the film is also remarkably resonant; none of the portraits, especially the teen-agers, are quite what they seem.
"There are no judgments about any of these characters. They all are deeply sympathetic and are never patronized," Mendes said. "And this is hardly a film about suburban America. It could be anywhere."
More American Beauty News