Cinema Canada (Sep 1981)

The painful price of a Ticket to Heaven : here, David (Nick Mancuso) and Saul Rubinek unless you have three or four films packaged. So it’s very complicated for the kind of producer I am to work, unless I align myself with somebody’ who is making two or three films per year. The buyers aren't interested in people who make one film every couple of years. They're not even interested in quality. But you give them a package of five, and you can sell them any kind of crap. ‘Cinema Canada: Would you be willing to do television between films ? Vivienne Leebosh: No. I don’t have time. I’m still working full-time on Ticket To Heaven. And as soon as we close, there’s overseeing the campaign, doing the trailer... I'm not going to let a distributor just dump the film on the public without knowing what kind of promotion it will get. We've put too much of our lives into this to let it fall into the hands of some moron. Cinema Canada: Have you negotiated seriously with any American distributors ? Vivienne Leebosh: There are distributors who have seen it twice or three times and liked it. We will have American company photo: Lawrie Raskin. distribution — but we're still working on it. Cinema Canada: Will it precede Canadian distribution ? Vivienne Leebosh: I don’t think so. Canadian will likely precede American because we're opening the Festival of Festivals and we'd like to take advantage of that. : Cinema Canada: Do you think you would remain husband and wife if you weren’t immersed in the same field ? Ralph Thomas: Probably not. Vivienne Leebosh: There's no way of knowing. When Ralph and I were working on different projects, it was harder. We're both so compulsive that I’d be talking about my project and he’d be talking about his, and neither of us would hear a word. Ralph Thomas: We're so obsessive. As a consequence of that, the frictions were worse. That's why I say : probably not. Yesterday, for instance, I felt it was Sunday ~ all day, (It was Wednesday.) I felt it was Sunday because the scene I was writing occurred on Sunday. So every time I went downstairs, I was kind Ralph Thomas’ filmography 1980-81 Ticket To Heaven, feature film, director/co-writer (producer: Vivienne Leebosh) 1978-79 “For The Record” CBC-TV drama series : Cementhead, director/co-writer, 60 min. Every Person Is Guilty, director/scriptwriter (producer: Vivienne Leebosh), 60 min. Genie Awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay Ambush At Iroquois Point, feature for CBC, director, 90 min. 1977 “For The Record” CBC-TV drama series : Seer Was Here, executive producer, 72 min. (directed by Claude Jutra), A Matter of Choice, exec. p., 55 min. _ (directed by Francis Mankiewicz) Dying Hard, exec. p.,42 min. (directed by Don Haldane) Drying Up The Streets, exec. p./producer, 86 min. (directed by Robin Spry) Tyler, exec. p./director, 82 min. 1976 “For The Record” CBC-TV drama series : Dreamspeaker, producer 75 min. (directed by Claude Jutra) Winner of six Canadian Film Awards, including Best TV drama. Someday Soon, producer, 52 min. {directed by Don Haldane) Ada, producer, 57 min. (directed by Claude Jutra) The Tar Sands, producer/co-writer, 57 min. (directed by Peter Pearson) Hank, producer/co-writer, 52 min. (di rected by Don Haldane) 1975 “Performance” CBC-TV drama series : The Insurance Man from Ingersoll, producer, 52 min. (directed by Peter Pearson) Winner of one Canadian Film Award and one ACTRA award What we have here is a people problem, producer, 52 min. (directed by Francis Mankiewicz) Nest of Shadows, producer, 52 min. (directed by Peter Carter) Kathy Karuks is a Grizzly Bear, producer/writer, 52 min. (directed by Peter Pearson) (Plus numerous other credits, too extensive too list here, dating back to 1968.) of surprised it wasn’t Sunday. Now, that’s somebody who is pretty obsessed. Vivienne Leebosh: That's the kind of people we are. Ralph Thomas: When I’m writing, I get totally obsessed with my characters. Vivienne Leebosh: My biggest problem is pressure — the pressure of being a mother. I don’t have time to shop and buy food as much as I'd like. So I feel terribly guilty, and I get freaked when the fridge is empty—which it isnow and has been for three days. And I feel like a terrible failure when there’s no food in the house. That’s my biggest problem. My kids don’t feel badly. It’s my trip. 1 feel guilty. Ralph Thomas: To go back to one of the questions you first asked, I think there will be three or four Canadian producers still alive in the American system, who will produce mostly trash : horror movies, ‘B’ movies, the kind of stuff the majors will throw into 1,000 theatres for one week, and pull before anybody discovers it. Along the way, some others will emerge. But we're in a period of retrenchment. The boom will probably never be repeated. I don't expect in my lifetime to again see a year in which 77 feature films are made in Canada. Vivienne Leebosh: We weren't a part of it anyway. We were broke. Meanwhile, peer pressure was saying: ‘Ralph, you'd better do a feature. You've got to do one...’ But the scripts were so bad he couldn't. Ralph Thomas: But I didn’t think it was smart, either. And I was right. If I'd made a bad film then, I wouldn't have made another. Cinema Canada: Did the scripts you were offered turn out to be dogs in the end ? Ralph Thomas: Ohyeah. Nota single one was ever released. The scripts were dreadful. 3 I'll tell you a story — and this is typical of the Canadian film industry : I got this call from a producer, asking me if I'd be free to shoot a film in three weeks’ time. I told him I was working on a script, so he says: ‘Well, could you come to my office to discuss it ?’ I say: ‘Well, I'd like to read it first.’ So he says : ‘There's no time for that.’ No bullshit — that’s what he said ! I told him I didn’t see any point in visiting his office if I hadn’t read the script. ‘Well, how do I get the script to you ” he asks. And I say: ‘Put it in a cab.’ He says: ‘Who pays?’ And I say: ‘Well, obviously, you do! You’re the one approaching me.’ So he says: ‘Will you read it right away ?’ I say: ‘Yes, as soon as it arrives.’ Well, I read it. Then I call him up and ask: ‘This is shooting in three weeks’ time ?’ He says: ‘Uh huh, ‘First of all,’ I say, ‘there’s one major problem with this. By my reckoning, it's only about 50 minutes long. How are you going to make up the other40 minutes ?’ He says: ‘We'll look after that as we're shooting.’ Well, the film was shot by another director, and the rough cut was 60 minutes long. They’re still trying to figure out how to stretch it. Cinema Canada: Did this preducer go on to make another film ? Vivienne Leebosh : He likely will this year. He’s a big-money producer. Another film we know of that hasn't been released is only 72 minutes long — 10 minutes short of anything you could distribute as a feature. Ralph Thomas: The guy I just referred to—the one who eventually directed this film — has been blackballed throughout the entire industry. He’s paying the price. Cinema Canada: Could that happen again ? Ralph Thomas: There are countless stupid people out there. I have never encountered so many dumb, stupid businessmen — and they keep coming into the film industry. They keep blowing money. And they blow money for one simple reason: they don't know anything about making films. They think it’s all irrelevant. Cinema Canada: So you would term what has happened in the past two years a business failure, as opposed to September 1981 Cinema Canada/2?