WHAT WENT WRONG - Town & Country

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

Immediately after receiving the Academy’s highest honor, Warren Beatty returned to work on Town & Country, a $100M, multi-year production debacle that would become the biggest flop in rom-com history.Go Ad-Free - Join Our Patreon!Check Out Our Merch!Follow Us on Instagram!What Movie's Next? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And Alden Emrick, Alden Iron Rick. What's his name? Alden Iron. Aaron. Aaron. Aaron. Welcome back to another episode of what went wrong, brought to you by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterauer. We are well into season two coming at you with today our Valentine's Day episode.

And since you guys have shown us so much love recently with a whole slew of new reviews, we thought we'd read some of our favorites. If you're enjoying the show, hop on iTunes or Apple Podcasts or whatever they call it now, leave us a rating and review. And remember, the lower the review, give us some actual feedback so we can make the podcast better. We've gone through a full three-act dramatic structure with reviewer Bunny Cub. Bunny Cub initially left us a five-star review, very lovely, called us his escape during 2020. And then shortly after we released the... Bonfire of the Vanity's episode. We got a scathing one-star review.

Not only a one-star review, but a just brutal paragraph on basically how we were snowflakes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then we did, we brought it, we brought it to his attention or her attention. And now Bunny Cub has come in for the third act twist. Three-star review, Bunny Cub, we appreciate it. So we want to give you a shout-out. I left an unnecessarily brutal review based on one episode, and I apologize for that. I was in a crappy pandemic mood and it was totally uncalled for.

I feel that. I apologize to the hosts who have worked hard on this podcast and what I would guess is a labor of love. This is an entertaining and useful podcast that has enriched my pandemic a great deal. The hosts are not film snobs, which makes behind the scenes artistic process of movies accessible and fun. Listeners will learn about canonical films and camp classics. That only got us to three stars in his review. But that's okay. Something that did not get five stars in my book is today's.

film. And because it's Valentine's Day, we spent a long time trying to figure out what romantic comedy we should cover. And we decided that we should cover the least successful romantic comedy, financially speaking of all time. I have a question, Chris. Yes. Can we call this a comedy? I like calling it a sex farce. But there we go. That's fine. Yes. The film, of course, is town and country, great minivan, rough ride of a movie. Quick note before we get started, much of the information that we're going to discuss today was pulled from an excellent book called Fiasco, A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops, written by James Robert Parrish. If you want to learn more about town and country or any number of other giant Hollywood belly flops,

check out James's book. That's Fiasco, A History of Hollywood's iconic flops. All right, on to town and country. Written by Michael Loughlin and Buck Henry, amongst many, many others, as we'll learn, directed by Peter Chelsom and starring four Academy Award-winning actors, Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie Haun, and Charlton Heston, along with comedian. The Charlton Heston's teeth. Yeah, all of them. They're very large. Along with Gary Shandling, Andy McDowell, Jenna Elfman, and Nastasha Kinski. I'm sorry, you're missing a big one.

Who am I missing? Josh Hartnett. Oh, and a young 19-year-old unknown Josh Hartnett. Yes, that's true. Town and Country is a 2001 romantic comedy or sex farce released by New Line Cinema. It was marketed as an adult comedy, but the film was unfortunately proclaimed dead on arrival. It seemingly ended Warren Beatty's film career. We'll get to that later.

lost upwards of $100 million and sparked a shakeup at one of Hollywood's last mini-major studios New Line Cinema. Now, for those of you who haven't seen the movie, the plot is deceptively simple. It follows Warren Beatty's Porter Stoddard. Hey, that's my best friend growing up, her last name was Stoddard.

So shout out to Joe Beth. Joe Beth, you share the name with this character. An architect so successful, he owns houses in both the Hamptons and on Park Avenue. His wife, Ellie, played by Diane Keaton, is a supposedly equally successful interior designer or designer. After discovering his friend Griffin, Gary Shanley-Shanley-has been cheating on his other friend, Mona, Goldie Hawn. Porter is terrified that his own philandering with cellist Nastassia Kinski is going to be discovered. Rather than do something reasonable, like come clean or try to cover it up,

He just sleeps with a bunch of other people, including Mona. What follows is a sex farce that quickly jettisons the always charming Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in favor of a stuffed animal-obsessed electro complex-ridden Andy McDowell, her trigger-happy father, Charlton Heston, and Jenna Elfman's manic pixie dream girl prototype, Auburn. Lizzie, and please keep this brief, you just watch this film. Give it the audience your thoughts. and really brevity. All I'll say is that if this were an entire movie of Charlton Heston's teeth

and him firing shotguns at Warren Beatty over his stuffed animal obsessed daughter, Andy McDowell, I think it would have been better. I didn't think I'd ever say that, but that was like a separate movie that happens in the middle part of this movie. And immediately I was like, I don't know what's happening, but I'm significantly more interested in all. of this. One more thought. I'm really tired of Diane Keaton being the lady whose husbands are cheating on her. Why? Diane Keaton is incredibly attractive. We don't need to see this anymore. What is Krusty Warren

Beatty doing, skipping out on her with everybody else? It doesn't make any sense. Also, stop sleeping with Warren Beatty. I did not dislike this movie as much as you did. It was not that bad. It's no fantastic four. But it does make no sense. It doesn't make much sense. I thought there was a brief stretch after the end of Act 1 or so when Warren Beatty starts sleeping with Goldie Hahn. And I actually thought was pretty fun when I thought it was going to be like, oh, maybe he'll sleep with her.

Gary Shaneling will end up with Diane Keaton and it'll be, you know what I mean, this weird, like couples like crossed sex farce. Except that they treat a very serious, like, it's strange because they treat the seriousness of the affairs with like the appropriate amount of gravity, but then they also try to make a farce out of it. and it's like really uncomfortable and weird to watch and not funny. Yeah, you got to let go of morality. Leave it at the door when you get into this one.

But as always, town and countries beleaguered trip to the silver screen started with a screenplay. So originally the film was written by Michael Loughlin. He was a UCLA law school grad turned producer turned writer, who after three decades in Hollywood had homes in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Kauai. He's very successful. He's married.

Damn, good for him. And I'm guessing maybe the script was a little bit pulled from his own life in some way. And we should note that he had been married for a time to the dancer and actress, Leslie, and I think it's Karon. Yeah, it's Karon, I think. Karon, who herself had been engaged in a brief affair with Warren Beatty in 1969, in a weird connection. Leslie Karon. Super.

hot. Yes. So Laughlin's most recent script, titled Town and Country, centered around a long married man who loses the path, cheats on his wife, realizes he's actually happiest with his wife. What a shock. And then in the end, they reconcile. And it was supposed to be like a send-up of the genre a little bit, and not with the separation, but with them coming back together. It was supposed to be fun and lighthearted and aimed at middle-aged adults' translation, maybe questionable box office potential. More importantly than any of that, though, the screenplay caught the attention of Michael DeLuca, who we've actually talked about before on the podcast because he was the young

president of New Line Cinema. And guys, if you want to learn more about the birth and rise and almost fall of New Line Cinema, you can listen to our episode on the Island of Dr. Moreau. Michael DeLuca was one of the producers involved with that disastrous production. Really quickly, New Line Cinema, just you understand. in the context of this, the making this movie. It was started in 1967 by Robert Shea, who's also in the Dr. Moreau episode. And it was basically started as a way to just distribute low budget horror and thriller films. And that was like the bread and butter. And then they hit gold with Nightmare

on Elm Street in 1984. And then they did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 1990s. And then Michael DeLuca came into the company as a college intern from NYU. He dropped out after, a couple years and he just like worked his way up the ranks of this company until he was the president of production at 28 years old. So he's like a college dropout. Wow, I feel extremely lazy. Yeah, exactly. He's incredibly successful and has just worked his way up the ladder and he hit big in the early 90s when he greenlit the mask and dumb and dumber in the same year. And that was 1994. And so New Line Cinema just entered the 90s knocking it out of the park. But DeLuca's success seems to have caused some tensions with Robert Shea, his mentor.

DeLuca wanted to bring more prestige projects to the studio. But Shea wanted to stick with the horror thriller fair that they've been doing. And so this led to some of the dissonance that created projects like Island of Dr. Morrow, where it was like, it's a horror film, but it's also starring Marlon Brando. So we don't really know what to do with this. Or like The Long Kiss Good Night or Last Man Standing. but every time that they kind of had some of these flops, they would follow it up with Austin Powers,

Rush Hour, The Wedding Singer. This New Line made some of my favorite movies from the 90s. I do love the wedding singer. It's great. So good. And more importantly, the films that New Line Cinema was making were cheaper than the average films that Hollywood was making at the time. So New Line's average cost of a film was $29 million.

The average Hollywood film was $56 million at the time. So they're doing it at a price. They're making their money back. DeLuca Options, town and country. They set a budget for like $20 million, roughly speaking. Remember that number. And now they need a star. Enter Warren Beatty.

Now, I think most people nowadays know Warren Beatty, not from his incredible career as an actor, director, and producer, but rather from maybe what recent event, Lizzie, can you think of? I legitimately think of him as Annette Benning's husband. Do you remember the 2017? Oscars when he read the wrong best picture name with Fay Dunaway. Oh, yes. I thought Fay Dunaway read it, right?

Yeah, he handed her the envelope and then she read the wrong name. And yeah, so in 2017, Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway infamously were either handed or took the wrong envelope for Best Picture. They accidentally took the best actress envelope or sporting actress. I can't remember. And they opened it up and it looked like the winner said, Lala Land. So they said that the best picture winner was La La La Land when it was actually Moonlight. Yes.

And La La La Land, they went up and they started making their acceptance speech only to get kind of pulled off the stage with a cane and they sent out the moonlight team. Suffice it to say this was not Warren Beatty's fault. No. I was going to play a clip from it, but it feels a little cruel. No, it's sad. Also, it's La Faye Donaway's fault. Yeah. And they both had a, I think they both felt terrible afterwards.

And nor should it be the defining moment of his incredible career. And I was going back through his career and I was just like, oh my God. I forgot how insane this guy's career was. So quickly, he was born in Richmond, Virginia. I know, and you know his sister is? Shirley McLean. Yes. And so his parents and grandparents were teachers.

He fell in love with movies at a young age. He was a football star in high school. They called him Mad Dog Beatty, and he was very athletic. He's a big guy. Really? I thought he'd be kind of small. That's interesting. No, he's like six too and strapping.

In the movie, Heaven Can Wait, he plays a brought back to life football. football player and it's pretty convincing. He attended Northwestern University for a year, then moved to New York to pursue acting. Of course, spurred in some part by the success of his older sister. Shirley McLean. Wonderful actress, Shirley MacLean. Yeah, the best. Made his film debut in 1961 in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass opposite Natalie Wood. He got a Golden Globe nomination for that one, and he was off to the races. He spent the next five years cementing himself as Hollywood's newest golden boy. But at the age of 28, he produced and starred in what film.

Gotta be shampoo. That was a little later. Bonnie and Clyde. Oh, I didn't know he produced that. He did. He produced it. He starred in it alongside Fay Dunaway. And as Gerald Garrett,

syndicated movie calling list, put it, at 28, the image of Warren Beatty, fun-loving Playboy is dead. Warren Beatty, a man of cinema, is born.

Also, he dated Natalie Wood as well, too, right? We're going to get there. Yes. Bonnie and Clyde was a shocking success. Got 10 Oscar nomination. Bady took home 30% of the film's profits. Hell, yeah. Netting him $6 million in 1967.

He's 28 years old, 29 years old. Whoa, I want that much money. Yep. So then in the 70s and 80s, his profile grew exponentially. Highlights include shampoo, which you mentioned, which he produced, co-wrote, acted in, and was directed by Hal Ashby. It was nominated for four Academy Awards. Then there was 1978's Heaven Can Wait.

which he co-directed with Buck Henry, earned nine Oscar nominations, and was one of my dad's favorite films. And then perhaps most importantly, my favorite, I think, was 1981's Reds. It's the historical epic about American communist journalist John Reed.

That's him and Diane Keaton. I've never seen that. They had a love affair during that movie. You should watch it. It's great. Diane Keaton's excellent in it. Wait, like he and Diane Keaton really had a love affair? They did.

Yes. And we'll get there. It took home three Oscars after receiving 12 nominations and Beatty won his first Oscar and only Oscar for Best Director. Of course, as we've seemed to have hit, Beatty was perhaps as well known for his film career as for his dalliances with the many, many lovely ladies of Hollywood. As I mentioned, he's 6-2, athletic, disarmingly handsome, boyish, charming, and according to some rumors, he had bed upward of 13,000 women during his single years.

That's like not physically possible. It's not. And he had a very funny moment on the Graham Norton show where he was like, I would have been so busy to have possibly achieved that. Also, you'd have had every venereal disease possible and he would be crippled. His brain would be Swiss cheese from neuroscient. But what we can say is that his romances did include. This list is absolutely bonkers. Okay, I'm ready.

Okay. Jane Fonda. Okay. Joan Collins. Oh. Share. Whoa. Good for him.

Natalie Wood. Yep. Julie Christie. Oh. Fay Dunaway. Okay. Brigitte Bardot. Okay.

Wow. Joni Mitchell. Whoa. Goldie Hawn. Around the Time of Shampoo. Oh, wow. And they starting it together. Candice Bergen.

Okay. Melanie Griffith. Jesus. Raquel Welch. This is just... Mary Tyler Moore. This is every woman in Hollywood.

Diane Keaton. It gets better. Diana Ross. Okay. Connie Chung, the reporter. All right. Diane Sawyer, apparently. Madonna.

Babs Streisand. Barbara Streisand. Barbara? And of course, Carly Simon, who famously wrote the second verse of Yerso Vane about Warren Beatty. Really?

I always thought it was about Mick Jagger. That's so interesting. The first verse is about Mick Jagger, and the second verse is about Warren Beatty, according to Carly Simon. But Beatty reportedly thought the entire song was about him and called Carly Simon. And he thanked her for the tribute, which I thought was just perfect. Wow, she nailed it.

There were also completely unsubstantiated rumors that he slept with Princess Margaret and Jackie O while JFK was in office. I hope those are both true, honestly, because those ladies got. got a rough deal with the men that they did actually wind up with. So go get it, Jackie. Those were unsubstantiated. I just thought I'd mention it because it's fun. Of course, this all ended in 1992 when Beatty fell in love with and married Annette

Benning, his wife now of nearly 30 years. And they really seem to be a rock solid couple and they have four children together. And Annette Benning is just wonderful and lovely. I will clean this house today. She's so good. She's also a great soprano's cameo where she plays herself. and we just hit that recently. All right.

Now, throughout Beatty's Star Studded career, there were the occasional flops, as there are in all actress careers. None seemed to slow him down, however, until 1987's Ishtar. But Beatty bounced back in the early 90s with Dick Tracy, which did very well, and 1991's Bugsy.

They were both critical in commercial successes. They got 17 combined Oscar nominations. However, this momentum was halted by 1994's, love affair, which he made with Annette Benning, a remake of the 1939 movie of the same name that he'd been long in love with. It tanked the box office, got dismal reviews, and more importantly, it kind of signaled that maybe he was getting too old to play the love interest in these films. He was nearing 60. He was playing across women two decades younger than him in the case of Annette

Benning. And perhaps it was time to transition away from the Playboy parts as he had in his personal life, hanging up his spurs to start a family with Annette Benning. Or it's time to do exclusively that in a movie called Downing Country. Yes, and alas, that will be the road not traveled. Unfortunately, 1998's Bullworth was the next movie that he did, which was more successful than Love Affair. I remember seeing it when I was younger and I enjoyed it. It's with Hallie Berry, right?

It is. So he still was playing across, Hallie Berry was 29. Yeah, like one of the hottest women who has ever lived, by the way. I have sat in the same room. I've sat three feet away from her. is what, 50 years old? She is. I'm convinced she's always been whatever age she is. She is not aged. Like they say that about Keanu Reeves. She doesn't age. No, Keanu Reeves ages slowly. He does age a little bit. She just doesn't age. Nope. She looks amazing. She looks better than I'll ever look and she's in her 50s.

It's not even like I could catch up. No, I have no chance. She'll always look better. Yeah. She'll be dead for years and she'll still look better than us. A corpse. Absolutely. Bullworth didn't quite break even at the box office, but it wasn't a huge flop. but it was kind of tepidly reviewed. And the consensus around town was maybe that Beatty's time as a leading man was coming to an end. So between movies, he actually was seemingly moving away from film. He was considering running for office. A lot of people thought he was going to run for president in 2000.

It was a really big rumor. And unfortunately, he decided to make town and country instead. Honestly, wish he'd run for office. Literally, we could have had Warren Beatty president, but instead we have the war in Iraq and town and country. Further proof that we are in the dark timeline. It's just a question of when we deviated off of the good one. Exactly.

So in 1996, Michael DeLuca attached Beatty to town and country. Now, it seems like initially maybe the character was written for a slightly younger actor or a different actor because instantly they set Michael Loughlin out to do rewrites that would suit the role more to Beatty and his personality. Meanwhile, New Line hired British director Peter Chalcum to helm the movie. I don't know much about Peter and I'm not, this podcast is not going to be about him. I did see his movie The Mighty, which was this really charming, like, 1990s Karen Colkin movie that has like a young James Candlefini in it. Gillian Anderson's really good in it, Sharon Stone's in it as well. That one's fun, and he later did like serendipity with Kate Beckinsale.

Okay. He's done some stuff. He's a, seems like a talented man. Yeah. The point here, though, is that this was going to be his first big budget Hollywood film. Uh-oh. And he's directing a man who's won the best director, Oscar. So tough.

So Beatty wraps Bullworth. He comes in and his negotiated salary is $8 million. And so that $20 million budget that they had set for the movie initially, nope, we are getting rid of that. Oh, my God. He's also given final approval over the script, even though he was neither producing nor directing the project, which I believe is fairly unusual.

for an actor to get final. It's like a director getting final cut. Very few people actually get that. As Beatty was overseeing additional rewrites, the rest of the cast was rounded out. Most of them are the same as seen in the final film, with the exception of Griffin, his friend who has the affair.

Originally, he was going to be played by, drum roll please, Gerard Depardue. I think I prefer Gary Chandler. I do, too. I like Gary Shanley. There's something about Gerard de Parthia that like kind of creeps me out. I'm sure he's fine, but I'm sorry.

No, he's weird. He's like, was he bad? He moved to Russia. Yeah, he moved to Russia and announced his French citizenship. There we go. I knew it. Didn't want to pay taxes or something. Okay, nailed it.

Rounding out the cast are Goldie Hahn and Diane Keaton, who ironically are both former lovers of Warren Beatty coming off of the surprise success of the first wives club, which they both been in. So at this point now, Beatty has been romantically involved with two of the leading ladies and the ex-wife of the writer. Cut to early 1998, and the town and country budget has expanded to over $40 million.

Not a camera has rolled. The start date pushes from January to April to June, primarily to accommodate more rewrites of the script to fit this now powerhouse cast. Because every time they bring in like, it's Goldie Hawn, we got to give her more to do. It's Diane Keaton, we got to give her more to do. It's Jenna Elfman's on Dharma and Greg.

We've got to give her more to do. So it's a great thing to have all these. as to how Charlton Heston's entire side plot happened with Andy McDowell. Yeah, exactly. So as we've discussed on this podcast, the first rule of filmmaking is never begin shooting without a finished script, something Michael DeLuca knew very well. However, the makers of town and country found themselves between a rock,

needing to finish the script, and a hard place. The actor's contracts had stop work dates, and they were pay or play. So pay or play means whether or not you shoot, if you pass a certain date, you have to pay these actors. They had $20 million tied up in checks that were going to go out whether or not they filmed the movie.

So basically, New Line was like, if we don't start filming by the end of June, we're going to not be able to wrap by November when our actors have to go on to other projects. And if we try to push until later, we have to pay them all their money anyway and then renegotiate new deals. Yeah, you have to start.

So they're about to lose $20 million. adding literal insult to injuries, Gerard de Perdue then crashed his motorcycle and broke his leg, forcing him to step away from the project. I am convinced he maybe just drove it into a wall and decided that he just wanted to leave. He was like, I cannot do this film. And he just like drove into a wall. Beatty then asked his longtime friend and co-star from Love Affair, Gary Shanling, to come in to replace Depardue. Guys, if you don't know Gary Shanling, go watch the Larry Sanders show. funny from like the 90s. It was like meta television before meta television. He plays a late night talk show host. It's great. Anyway, he's a much different performer than Deppardu. He's

very sarcastic and soft-spoken. So they had to rewrite his whole character. And by this point, they brought in another writer, Todd Alcott. He'd just written 1998's ants. So I think he was the second or third writer brought on. So in June of 1998, they're like, all right, we got to go. If we don't go, we're going to lose everyone attached to this project. We're going. So in order to buy more time for rewrites, they started shooting the secondary scenes first, so like interstitial scenes and stuff. And they allowed the newest writer that they brought on, Paul Atanasio, who wrote Donnie Brasco and Sphere.

And shooting was very slow for two reasons. First, the cast and director would rework scenes on the fly to try to tweak their dialogue to fit their own performance styles better. And then second, Beatty reportedly was extremely meticulous and was going David Fincher on himself requiring like a hundred takes to be satisfied. And the film also just suffered plain bad luck. They lost 10 reels of footage, which represented two days of shooting. It was like stolen from a van. Oh, God. Parked outside of a film processing center in New York. It had to be reshot. So by August, this is like kind of, they were supposed to be halfway done with the shoot. The team realizes

that like we need to make some changes to make this movie work. And they bring in Buck Henry, who had co-directed on Heaven Can Wait with Beatty, and he'd also written Goldie Hans Protocol and to die for her for Gus Van Sant. He's running to do two things. He's supposed to make Gary Shanling's character funnier and then fix the movie's ending. So he rewrote the entire third act of the film.

He also, if you don't recognize him, Buck Henry is the divorce lawyer at the end of the movie. Oh, he was great. Yeah, he's really fun. He was reportedly paid. I read in one source $3 million. for this work, and he joked that, like, his quick rewrite job bought him his second house. So at this point, they've spent, like, $5 million on the script.

Rather than shut down production to give time to the rewrites, Peter Chalcum, the director, Warren Beatty and Buck Henry, would launch into group screenwriting sessions during the shooting days, like, in the middle of production. And so the casting crew would kind of sit around while they brainstormed. New Line then brought in another writer, Gary Ross, he wrote Pleasantville, he wrote Big and Dave. So really talented people coming in to try to fix this thing. And apparently they didn't even use his work. And so then beyond all the script tensions, things are getting really dicey

between Warren Beatty and the director, Peter Chelsom. Chelsom had just made indie films until this point. And it's the classic, you know, what we saw with Dr. Moreau. He no longer has complete control. And he's now attempting to direct a 15-time Academy Award nominee who lives. literally has the best director Oscar that he could beat him over the head with. That's impossible. It's like, Peter's like, I think we should do it this way.

And he's like, my friend Oscar says we should do it the other way. So rumors start circulating that new lines considering replacing the director. Apparently Diane Keaton went up to him during the shoot, pulled him aside and was like, you will never have her have it this bad on a shoot again. Which like on the one hand, thanks. But on the other hand, like we're only halfway through shooting at this point. So I don't know what we're going to be able to do. So November comes, and after five months in, they have to stop,

despite not having shot a full ending to the movie. So Gary Shandling leaves to go make, What Planet Are You From? And Keaton goes off to direct and starring hanging up. So everybody disperses in November of 1998. Remember, the movie doesn't come out until 2001. Yeah. So Chelsea and New Line spend the winter and spring of 1999,

putting together a rough cut of the movie. And then in the summer of 1999, hoping that they've got enough of a movie. there that they don't have to finish it like do reshoots or anything they did a test couple test screenings and apparently it went poorly uh new line here's what a new line source later said quote at test screenings moviegoers said they couldn't stand warren betty's character because he was only after one thing from women and that was sex and he didn't seem like the sort of guy who'd be able to get much so bingo yes harsh but also action

accurate. So new line considered then just dumping the movie into theaters anyway, but then they decided, you know what, let's just shoot Buck Henry's newly written ending. I have a feeling maybe it was out of respect to Warren Beatty that they didn't just dump the movie and they decided to shoot the ending. I mean, he's an absolute legend. You've got a bunch of legends in this. Like you really can't just drop a stanker. Although, I mean, it's a mark. It's an absurd cast. So the movie has blown by like three release dates at this point. The distributors are furious because Newline keeps pumping them up and then pulling the movie from the release dates. And now, of course, you're getting the Titanic effect. All of these reporters all over town are saying that this project is off the rails. It's another

heaven's gate. It's another water world. It's going to be Titanic, but not successful. So unfortunately, adding fuel to the fire, Robert Shea, founder of New Line, conducted in an interview with the LA Times in which he said, Warren Beatty had seduced Michael DeLuca into greenlighting the film before it had a written, finished script. And so this sticks off a giant media shitstorm between Warren Beatty and New Line. Warren Beatty actually sent them a cease and desist letter and sent out a memo to the, you know, press saying this is untrue.

I have nothing but a collaborator. I encourage them not to start filming without a finished script. I believe that. Like, he's a director. He's worked on movies. He knows this is a mistake. I do too. And it just, you don't want this happening in any situation.

You especially don't want this happening when they still need to get the crew back together to finish the movie. Yeah. So if you remember, they went on hiatus November of 1998. In April of 2000, the cast was finally free and available to be reassembled to shoot the rewritten third act of the movie. In the interim, they'd all changed and aged and changed. changed hairstyles. So they needed new wig work and more extensive makeup. And in fact,

there had been these intense rumors that Beatty was going to run for president on the 2000 Democratic ticket. And I think there were some people involved that wanted that to happen. So they wouldn't have to release that movie. Yeah, this would have been shelved. For sure. You know.

So it should also be noted that Jenna Elfman's hair began following out during these reshoots because she had to change it between the bleach blonde that she did in town and country and the strawberry blonde of Dharma and Greg so often. So I think she's wearing a wig in like half those scenes at the end of the film. It looks like especially at the end when she's walking down the stairs at the event. It looks, I think it's her hair, but it's like messed up. Like it's a it's a highlighter yellow that there's no way that she intended it for it to be that way. And it's just the consequence of the scheduling. So since they're taking a time to, yeah, Since they're taking time to shoot a new ending,

the filmmakers decided to add in new scenes throughout the film that would make Beatty's character hopefully more sympathetic. No. So the entire third act gala was added in reshot. All of Buck Henry's scenes as a divorce lawyer, the voiceover, the closure scenes between Shandling and Hahn at the antique store was shot after the fact.

The scene with Beatty and Kinski where she reveals that she's pregnant, but she's not pregnant with his child, and they have their like parting moment, that was shot after the fact. It's like most of the second half of the movie. Exactly. They really added in a lot. And then at the same time that this is happening,

AOL and Time Warner have merged, which shouldn't have any impact on this movie, yet somehow it does. So Time Warner owned New Line Cinema. They'd bought them a few years earlier. And then when AOL merged with them, they required downsizing across all of their subsidiaries. And so New Line Cinema took it as an opportunity

to Can Michael Deloombo. Basically pinning this on him. They let go of him from this position. He's replaced by Toby Emmerich. And so despite many years of success, he'd had a rough year 2000, the low point of which was Adam Sandler's little Nikki, which did horribly and is a rough one. It's no wedding singer, we'll say that.

So coupled with the rising costs of town and country, which now after reshoots had climbed north of $80 million. Oh my God. For this movie? Yeah, $80 million. I should note, Michael DeLuca has gone on to have a remarkable career. He's produced on the social network, Moneyball, Captain Phillips, amongst many others, and he's currently the chairman of the MGM Motion Picture Group, so he obviously landed on his feet.

However... I don't think this was his fault. No, and the downside of all of this is that now town and country has lost its one champion at New Line Cinema. So nobody at New Line cares about the movie anymore. So they wrapped production finally at the end of April in the year 2000. So production technically lasted almost two years. It was basically as long as apocalypse now when you think about it.

You know, the end result was really similar. Exactly. Of course, the run-up to town and countries released continued to be plagued by industry reports of gross overspending. There was a minor dust-up with the MPAA. I don't know if you've seen the trailer for this movie, Lizzie. They tried to release like a rate of. our trailer and sneak some things by the MPAA but when the MPAA learned what the phrase Muff Diver meant, they sent them a letter saying that they had to pull the trailer and then the

studio refused. Also to explain where that comes in. I'm sorry I keep harping on this, but honestly, you should watch this movie just because of the side plot of Andy McDowell's family. This is, okay, I got to go into this, Chris. I'm sorry. The phrase Muth Diver is used by Andy McDowell's character's mother who is in. in a wheelchair inexplicably, which is, you know, great.

You don't need to explain it. She's also drunk most of the movie and just yelling about how Charlton Heston won't have sex with her anymore, presumably because she's in a wheelchair. That appears to be what she's implying, but it's played as like a hilarious joke. It's not. I even thought at one point she implied that the reason she was in the wheelchair was because he stopped having sex with her. Like, I might have heard it wrong, but I thought she was like, you know, that's what got me

in this whole mess to start with. I was like, what are you talking about? Oh, maybe. But then she, uh, anyway, she's just constantly on Charlton Heston for not having sex with her enough. And he and his giant teeth are more focused on defending his daughter's honor. He also makes one of the craziest sounds I've ever heard when he says that he's a dragon and Warren Bady has to slay him. All I'm saying is please go back and someone just make a full movie of just Charlton Heston, this lady and Andy McDowell.

That's the one I want to see. Now, Muff Diving Aside, on January 11th, 2001, a columnist in Hollywood, Liz Smith, reported that the film had cost at this point $120 million. This number has never been verified. The $80 million number seems to be what's widely accepted. So, Warren Beatty at this point, realizing what a stinker this whole thing is going to become, tells his publicists, Pat Kingsley to send out a memo to the press. And this memo says two things. One, he was not the cause of the delays on the movie.

And two, he had not interfered with the scripting, directing, or editing. Basically, he was saying, I was just a good little soldier. And also, all I did was act in this. So if it's bad, it's not on me. It's kind of a crappy thing to do. It also doesn't seem that likely because apparently he'd actually done his own edit of the movie that he'd sent to New Line and they'd rejected. And he was the one who insisted on doing the voiceover that kind of pops up periodically in the film.

So it doesn't seem entirely truthful. However, in 2001, February, Warren Beatty just goes for it and he puts the cost overruns squarely at the feet of the producers. He says, it is because of the problems with their bizarre production schedule and a myriad of other problems. So everybody's going to war. And then, so New Line Cinema says, well, screw it, we're not going to support this movie anymore. So they say, we're not doing a media junket. We're not sending any of our stars out to talk to any of the press about this movie. They bought a little bit of air time on TV shows like NYPD Blue.

And then they even decided not to screen the film for reviewers until two days prior to the opening, which is the classic move that you do. If you're convinced it's going to get bad reviews. They asked New Line, like the media asked New Line cinema about, you know, why aren't the stars promoting it? And New Line's quote is great. We're comfortable with the way the talent is supporting them. film, which is just like, we're good with nothing happening.

So town and country, after literally three years at this point, right, from the beginning of production until it's released, three years of awful behind-the-scenes stories getting leaked, sniping between Warren Beatty and the producers, actors coming and going. It's released on April 27, 2001, across a couple of films that I wouldn't think would be competition. Sylvester Stallone's driven and Matt Dillon's One Night at McCool's. What? Two films couldn't tell you anything about. I think I've seen part of One Night in McCool's on TNT when I was home at my parents' house. Sounds like a TNT movie. Drinking a Red Bull watching One Night at McCool's on TNT. It opened on 2,200 screens and it made $3 million.

It's opening weekend, which is $1,400 per theater. It made $6.7 million during its theatrical run, is basically the same amount that Warren Beatty made for himself on the profits of Bonnie and Clyde 30 years earlier alone. Yikes. It made 10.37 million worldwide. It's estimated that including the cost of advertising, the film's budget was out around $120 million. So not its production budget, but including advertising.

So that means it was a $100 million plus loss, one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history. one of the biggest comedy flops ever. That is insane. That is insane. Yeah, and I believe it's the biggest rom-com. It has to be. At least Evan Almighty, they had live animals that they were dealing with. Like, I can understand how that one lost so much money.

I don't understand how this movie cost that much money. I know you just explained it to me for 50 minutes. I don't understand. There's a joke in there about Warren Beatty being an animal, but we're not going to go there. Michael DeLuca later said, quote, town and country totally got away from me. The big mistake was starting without a finished script. It's the oldest and dumbest mistake in the business, and I did it. As William Goldman once said, quote, no one knows anything and no one learns anything.

So it happens and it will continue to happen. Peter Chelsam continued to work more or less consistently. He made serendipity in 2001. And he's made, you know, Hector in the Search for Happiness and the Space between us. He's, you know, just made a number of films over the last 15 years. So he seems to be doing okay. And he has said publicly that town and country is the only film than he's ever gone over budget making. And boy, did he ever on that one.

Don't think it was his... Yeah, I was going to say, sounds like through no fault of his own. Yeah, exactly. Warren Beatty didn't really talk about town and country after its release. Annette Benning told reporters in 2001, quote, he's not even thinking about it. I'm sure Warren would have produced it differently, but he's proud of the way it turned.

out and I'm proud of him. I loved it. Maybe that's true. I don't know. She seems like a really, really kind person. Now, despite his assertions that he wasn't bothered by it, Warren Beatty left filmmaking, it seems. And he didn't make a movie for 15 years, only to return for the 2016 movie Rules Don't Apply, which stars Emily and Perry, Lily Collins, as a, uh, a young actress who ends up embroiled in a love triangle between Warren Beatty's, like, I think, 80-year-old Howard Hughes and Alden Emrick. Alden Iron Rick.

What's his name? Aaron. Alden. Aaron. Aaron. Aaron. Aron. Alden.

And Alden from Hansola, the Hans Solo. Alden Aaron Reich. But that to your audience is a story for another episode. I don't really want to talk about that. Rather than end on. such a dour note of Warren Beatty's like brief comeback, which ended in a giant legal battle with Brett Ratner, which to make a movie that doesn't turn out well and then to end up in court with Brett Ratner, what a nightmare. I'd like to circle back to the year 2000. It was obviously

a time of change. And it kind of ended up being both weirdly the high point and the low point of Warren Beatty's career. And it just goes to show you can't choose how you come in, you can't choose how you go out. And everybody's career has weird, checkered moments. And I will always choose to remember Warren Beatty more by his earlier projects. You can choose to do something different. Literally no one remembers Warren Beatty for town and country, Chris. No one knows this movie exists. He's fine. I'm sure it was very upsetting. But the good news is Warren Beatty is an icon. This is the funny. I just want to, the irony of this moment.

So March 26 of 2000, it's the 72nd Oscars. And Warren Beatty is about to go back into production on town and country in like seven days. So he's about to go back into the worst project maybe he's ever done. His wife, Annette Benning, is pregnant with their fourth child in the audience at the Oscars. like, could deliver at any moment. So he's about to have his fourth child. It's the turn of the millennium. He's about to go back to the worst projects he's ever made.

And he's awarded the Academy by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Irving B. Thalberg Award, which is literally the highest honor the Academy gives out, period. It's only been given out 39 times. It's given to, quote, creative producers whose bodies of work reflect to consistently high quality of motion picture production, which is accurate. Is accurate and yet so ironic that he's about to go back into town-eye country as he's accepting this award.

Past winners include David O'Slznick, Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder, Clint Eastwood, and George Lucas. So, ladies and gentlemen, rather than think of him in terms of the 2017 Oscars Flob or town and country, I'd instead like to leave you with how Jack Nicholson, his longtime friend, and I'm sure long-time wingman in the game of scoring ladies in Hollywood, described him. Well, because of the dignity of the occasion, Miss Benning's delicate condition and the age of the recipient, there will be no sex jokes. and I'm very sorry about that. Warren leaves little a chance.

This may be why he's been nominated for an Oscar 14 times as a producer, an actor, a writer, and a director, and he's the only person in the history of the Academy to be nominated in the same year in these four categories. And he's done it twice. The gangster character that Warren plays repeats, Everybody needs a fresh start once in a while. And that's what so many of Warren's movies are about.

Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Love Affair and Bullworth are about people starting over with an almost childlike optimism, though they're often in the middle of their lives. They chase their dreams, and their dreams, survive as long as they refuse to give into a reality of a world that is geared to crush them. And what movie producer would ever put together anything so improbable as a motion picture without the unshakable optimism that tells him that this time against all the odds and ample evidence to the contrary, he might be able to make something great.

I love that. Who knows? Maybe Warren Beatty's career is over, and that's the last we've seen of him, but I wouldn't put it past him to come back for one more try, and I'll always watch it. I would like... Lizzie, as always, we have to end with me interrupting you to talk about what went right. So I'm going to force you to come up with something for what went right on town and country. That's easy. And don't tell me the minivan, because that came true. I think what went right is watching Charlton Heston just live out his NRA dreams right

and wrong, if you will, of him busting into some sort of upper crust art awards with a shotgun and firing upon Warren Beatty. Do you think he was really excited when he got that call?

They're like, good news, Charlton, we're redoing the third act and you get to shoot a gun I don't think that's how that call went. I think that call went with Charlton Heston saying, I'll do the movie, provided I can fire weapons at liberals. And they were like, I got to rewrite and mind it involves.

And as he's shooting, he's like, who put blanks in this thing? It's so strange. And it's such a weird turn and energy from the whole rest of the movie. But honestly, as much as I do not particularly like Charlton Heston for obvious reasons, it is such a palate cleanser for the rest of what's happening in the movie that I really enjoyed it. And Andy McDowell is very weird. and her energy is alarming and almost kind of serial killer-esque. And it's the movie I want to watch.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. It's like if Fatal Attraction had starred Andy McDowell and Charlton Heston. Yeah, it's out there. For me, I love and miss Gary Shandling. I find him very charming and funny and he was great. And he was great and he passed away in 2016. And I would have loved to see more of Gary Shandling. And I also have to say, Goldie Hawn.

So good. And so underutilized in this film. Seriously. But she's a wonderful actress. She's a great comedic performer, also just a great actress as well. So I think that there's a type of, she represents a type of performer that I don't know if it really exists anymore. And she is lovely and wonderful. And I wish that there have been more of her in this movie.

Seriously. Because I think she's exceptional. So Gary Shanling and Goldie Hawn, I wanted to watch more of the subplot of that couple. Guys, if that guys felt abrupt, it's because David had to cut a bunch of our conversations at this episode. As always, thank you so much for listening to What Went Wrong, Season 2. We have a great list of films, many of which were recommended by you, our lovely listeners. If you're new to the podcast, check out our back catalog, season one.

We got some real treasures in there. please send us your recommendations through Instagram. Our handle is at What Went Wrong Pod or What Went Wrong Pod at gmail.com. And if you're enjoying the podcast, recommend it to a friend. Recommend it to a friend with a social media presence. Or your mom. She might. Your mom might.

My mom doesn't, but your mom might. And so recommend it to a friend's mom. That's it. Until next week, Lizzie. Anything else? No. All right. With a whimper, not a bang.

What went wrong is a sad boom podcast presented by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer. Editing music by David Bowman with cover art from Yukonai UO's.