The First-Timer's Cut is the Cheapest

From a selfish point of view," says Roger Birnbaum, president of production at 20th Century Fox, "if we hire a top-line director, our involvement is lessened. If Fox makes a deal with Marty Scorsese, I'm not going to tell him how to direct. But a young first-timer craves collaboration. It's more fun for us." Similarly, New Line Cinema's chief Robert Shaye says that he likes first-time directors because these newcomers are more receptive to collaboration. "We stay away from prima donna directors period," Shaye declares. "We try to weed out directors with an attitude problem."

Arrogance usually goes hand-in-hand with extravagant salary demands. "Why are there so many first-time directors? It has to do with economics and control," says Heywood Gould, who made his directorial debut on One Good Cop for Disney's Hollywood Pictures last year. "It's not because the studios want to sponsor new talent." And it's no accident that Disney, which is particularly known for its frugality and for its desire to maintain tight control over its talent, has been one of the leaders in hiring first-time directors. (The novices at the mouse factory include, besides Gould, Jerry Rees on The Marrying Man, Frank Marshall on Arachnophobia, Mary Agnes Donoghue on Paradise, James Orr on Mr. Destiny, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise on Beauty and the Beast, Joe Johnston on Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Mark Herman on the upcoming Blame It on the Bellboy.) Gould was paid the Directors Guild minimum for directing One Good Cop. "That was fine with me," says Gould, a novelist and screenwriter who had been trying to direct for years. "I was happy to do it."

"Economics dictate the hiring of first-time directors," confirms David Friendly, the president of production at Imagine Films. "When the average movie costs $27 million, you have to find a way to bring costs down. Hiring a first-time director is one way to do that." Friendly says that big-time directors now can command as much as $5 million per movie plus a hefty percentage of the gross. How many of them are really worth it? Almost every major director has had a couple of flops or disappointments. Sometimes, instead of hiring a very expensive director with a very mixed track record, it can be appealing to start with a clean slate.

Paramount's Brandon Tartikoff recently explained why he signed Robert Lieberman (not a first-timer, but a relative newcomer) to direct All I Want for Christmas: Lieberman, he said, "cost one tenth of what Mike Nichols cost on Regarding Henry, and I'll bet Mike Nichols couldn't have done a better job." What he didn't mention is that Mike Nichols would have no interest in directing a processed piece of Christmas schlock, so Tartikoff had to look elsewhere. (Why Nichols would want to direct the equally canned Regarding Henry is another question, of course.) Acknowledging that top directors are not always eager to make the movies that a studio sees as surefire blockbusters, Fox's Roger Birnbaum says, "It would be hard to attract a class-A director to do a second sequel to Alien. So we decided to take a chance on a newcomer, David Fincher. It was nerve-wracking, but I think he has pulled it off." Similarly, it isn't likely that Sydney Pollack or Peter Weir were champing at the bit to direct Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, so Orion hired Peter Hewitt, age 29, described in the press kit as "an inveterate comic book fan" with nothing but short films to his credit.

Not only are established directors expensive, but they are often booked up for years or terribly indecisive about picking the next jewel in their crown. Ricardo Mestres, the president of Disney's Hollywood Pictures, points out that he does not usually begin with the idea of hiring a first-time director. "Many times our first 15 or 20 choices are either not available or not interested," Mestres says. "At that point often we'd rather take a risk and make a leap into the unknown than compromise with a director who will give us something predictable." Sometimes a studio has to accept a first-time director in order to snare a script or an actor that it desperately wants. Hot screenwriters find that they can often secure a directing gig in exchange for writing the script. Roger Birnbaum explains that when he and Joe Roth were launching their new regime at Fox, they wanted to go into business with a number of gifted screenwriters. They allowed George Gallo, Dale Launer and Nora Ephron to direct their scripts (29th Street, Love Potion #9, and This Is My Life, respectively) in order to sign these writers to exclusive screenwriting deals with the studio. "In order to attract some of these writers," Birnbaum says, "we made a decision to let them direct relatively inexpensive movies. From a business standpoint we couldn't get killed."

Similarly, to court powerful stars, studios have often been willing to dangle a chance to direct. The Oscars for first-time directors Robert Redford and Kevin Costner certainly don't hurt the cause of other actors who want to play DeMille.

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