Factory Girl: The Legend Grows

In Sunday's New York Times, Charles Taylor delivered a fascinating look at the damaged legacy of Factory Girl, a smoldering saga of good intentions, bad timing, broken promises and outsized egos. But in previewing the film's more promising director's cut coming July 17 to DVD (continue reading to win a copy), Taylor pulls some interesting anecdotes from filmmaker George Hickenlooper, who blames the production's New Orleans-based money people for not supplying the cash required to shoot three essential scenes in New York:

Shooting began early last year in Shreveport. According to Mr. Hickenlooper, part of the movie had to be shot in New York, and LIFT [the studio that underwrote Factory Girl] had promised him that he could shoot there for a number of days. Those days never materialized, he said, leaving him with what was essentially an unfinished film.

Tres Bernhard, general counsel for LIFT, said there was never any deal to finance shooting on location in New York. And, he said, by the end of the Shreveport shoot “George did not deliver the movie on budget, on time, as scripted.”

Mr. Hickenlooper’s response reveals the bad blood that still lingers. “That’s untrue,” he said and pointed out that LIFT was under investigation. “I think that speaks for itself.” (As The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has reported, LIFT is under investigation by a federal grand jury for abusing the tax incentives Louisiana offers to movie production companies.) It was at this point, Mr. Hickenlooper said, that [producer Holly] Wiersma approached [Harvey] Weinstein, who saw the footage Mr. Hickenlooper had shot. Mr. Weinstein bought distribution rights in a deal that also ensured him final cut. But the filming essentially stalled over the next three months while, according to Mr. Hickenlooper, LIFT refused to finance the New York shooting. “They actually thought they were finished,” Mr. Weinstein said. ...

Mr. Hickenlooper acknowledged that he was initially fearful of Mr. Weinstein and said that as the pressure on both of them to deliver the film on time increased, so did the arguments. “You always know where you stand with Harvey,” he said. “It’s what great. It can be horrifying too.”

Got it. So how does this reconcile with what Hickenlooper told the gang at Fat Free Film in a podcast posted in March (and linked here on The Reeler soon after):

There are all kind of rumors that the movie was in trouble -- that we're doing reshoots. That's not the case. When we shot the film, we needed $8 million. I had to cut 15 pages out of the script, so what I did was a big gamble, but I cut out scenes that were essential to the movie; you couldn't finish the film without them. No one realized that until the end. Harvey Weinstein bought the film at Sundance, but he bought it based on the dailies. But he didn't know I had these three essential scenes that I had to shoot in New York, which I had cut out. And it was easy to cut out because I couldn't shoot them in Shreveport anyway. ... When I presented my director's cut, there were, like, these big "SCENE MISSING" cards. And Harvey was like, "Where are these scenes?" And I was like, "Well, we have to shoot them." And he flipped out for a day, but then he was fine.

Most of this jibes with Taylor's piece, but the spirit seems a little different. Am I wrong in deducing from Hickenlooper's earlier version of events that not only did he know LIFT wouldn't pay for the New York shoot, but also that Harvey knew he'd be on the hook for them after viewing Hickenlooper's incomplete film? Did he cut those 15 pages from the script before or after LIFT green-lit the Shreveport shoot? Doing so before would explain why LIFT "thought it was finished," in Harvey's words, not to mention why it would protest that “George did not deliver the movie on budget, on time, as scripted.”

So, um, what do you think? The first two commenters to help square away the madness (or add to the conspiracy -- hell, why not?) win free DVD's of Factory Girl: The Unrated Director's Cut, featuring commentary by Hickenlooper, more deleted scenes (not to be confused with "SCENE MISSING" cards, I presume), Sienna Miller audition tapes, a making-of featurette and more. Drop your two cents below and we'll be in touch!

Posted at July 9, 2007 12:43 PM