Lost treasures – Indie film

Thank you for the awesome reception to the book!

I’ve been doing a lot of press to promote the book, and I’ve been asked a number of times what were the pivotal indie films in Christian’s career.

If you’ve been reading some of the more sensational headlines about the book, learn to read between the lines!  It’s unfortunate how much of an interview gets cut out to leave in the headline crap.

I love independent film.  Those films are the ones made with love and passion, before a director, a writer or an actor has to worry about whether or not their project makes a studio any money.  Indie films typically have more interesting dialogue, more original storylines, and the most daring work of an actor.

So when I think back on Christian’s career, the obvious indie choice is American Psycho.  Without American Psycho, Christian would have been hard pressed to convince Hollywood that he could play American, be buff, and look good in that all important “Bruce Wayne” like tuxedo!

But if you’re a fan of Christian’s work, you’d be remiss to ignore Metroland (reviewed here) and films like All the Little Animals and The Secret Agent – where Christian would lay the groundwork of playing a part like in The Fighter.  Here’s a factoid for you – Christian was actually after the part What’s Eating Gilbert Grape which he lost to…. DiCaprio!  To prepare for that role, he went to schools for the mentally challenged so that he could study mannerisms and speech patterns.  DiCaprio ended up getting the part – and it earned him an Oscar nom!

My very first indie film that really caught my eye was a wonderfully dark David Lynch film called Blue Velvet.   It was the first movie I ever saw where the audience reacted so strongly, that some people walked out of the theater!  Next was one of Colin Firth’s early films – Apartment Zero.  If you love American Psycho, you might want to check out Apartment Zero since it garnered Firth awesome reviews and should have made a star out of Hart Bochner.  But alas – not every actor had Christian’s kind of indie film marketing to leverage the most out of every appearance! I also loved the Canadian indie, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing and a film noir called After Dark My Sweet which starred Jason Patric.  Patric was another great actor who coulda woulda shoulda been a star, but he hates the Hollywood game and was pretty anti-publicity.

I could go on and on about various films that impressed me at a film festival or left me wondering if an actor would make it big after being the toast of Sundance, but I guess the main point about these being “lost treasures” is that not all of these films get released on DVD.  So they disappear unless you’re lucky enough to get press screeners.  When you think about how many wonderful indie films missed getting distribution, it’s a little discouraging and should make you realize the tough odds of getting a successful Hollywood career!  Here’s a Bale-related example – both Metroland and All the Little Animals were distributed in the U.S. by Lions Gate.  They chose to acquire those titles based on the very successful film festival attendance for those films. So fan power got those films a distribution deal.

When Lions Gate was getting ready to produce American Psycho, the entire casting war between Christian and DiCaprio was again determined by fan voting and reaction.  The casting war left a bitter taste in Christian’s mouth.  Does he hold a grudge? Well, let’s say that he made it quite clear that he would not appear in Lions Gate’s American Psycho 2 or Rules of Attraction – both Bret Easton Ellis projects.

We all love the summer blockbusters – they are entertaining, but if you’re a movie buff, I hope you look up smaller films – there are a million gems out there that are worth seeing.  And chances are, they will be your own private treasure!:)

I wanted to send out a big thank you to American and Canadian readers who’ve made Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman a Top 100 Best selling Amazon Biography for the past 2 weeks in a row!  I’ve done a couple more book events and have been so thrilled to meet movie buffs, Batman fans, Baleheads who are enjoying my book.

Coming up?

• The Patrick Phillips Show (podcast) on Wed, June 20
• The Writers conference – I’m on 2 panels (June 22, 23)
• Comic-Con, San Diego!
• Lots of press to be announced throughout July
• Book signing – Barnes & Noble Manhattan Beach, CA (July 20)