The film: Telling Lies in America (1997)
Why It's An Inessential Essential: Two years after Showgirls got screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan Smithee Film) blacklisted, the wily self-promoter returned with Telling Lies in America. Lies, based on a semi-autobiographical story, is somewhat similar to Showgirls in that they have common themes. Both films treat selling out and deception as an integral part of getting ahead in show business. But Lies, directed by Guy Ferland, is obviously not as garishly sarcastic as Showgirls is (few films are...). It's refreshing in that sense to see Eszterhas show genuine affection for his con men and hucksters in Lies rather than alternately mock and then half-heartedly show affection for his desperate protagonists.
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There was a time when the Judah Maccabee project (AKA the Jewish Braveheart) that Joe Eszterhas was penning for Mel Gibson seemed only modestly distasteful given Gibson's notorious penchant for making anti-Semitic remarks. Then Eszterhas turned in his script, Warner Bros. put the project on hold, and the real dramatic bloodbath began. Last night, Eszterhas penned a nine-page letter excoriating Gibson for ignoring his draft, accusing him of never intending to make the film in the first place and detailing a series of lurid, bigoted outbursts he and his family allegedly witnessed Gibson making during their collaboration -- a letter leaked to The Wrap and available in all of its bone-chilling glory, naturally.
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This just in from sister site Deadline: Warner Bros. is developing a Joe Eszterhas-penned project about the tale of warrior-hero Judah Maccabee, who led a second-century revolt against Hellenistic overlords in the name of the Jewish people. The project's producer and possible director? Mel Gibson.
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Music video veteran Hype Williams made his feature debut with 1998's Belly, a stylized noir-esque crime pic starring rappers DMX and Nas that had its problems but nevertheless presaged a decent future in film for Williams. Somehow, though, Williams never followed up his first film with additional features, with project after project falling through. Until now, as Variety reports that the director has signed on to helm Lust, a "Fatal Attraction in reverse" penned by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls).
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