ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: L.A: TRUE CRIME PREMIERE
TAPE_NUMBER: EN9911
IN_TIME: 10:44:38
LENGTH: 03:47
SOURCES: APTN/WARNER BROS
RESTRICTIONS: NO RESALE FILM/VIDEO CLIPS
FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY)
SCRIPT: xfa
English/Nat
LOS ANGELES, 15TH MARCH
ENG/NATSOT
CLINT UNVEILS HIS LATEST FLICK
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The world premiere of CLINT EASTWOOD's latest movie, TRUE CRIME, held on Monday night at Warner Bros Studios, Burbank, turned out to be a low key event, attracting a smattering of celebrities including the actor/director himself and fellow cast members ISAIAH WASHINGTON, FRANCES FISHER and DIANE VENORA. Also along for the screening, VING RHAMES, NOAH WYLE, GEORGE CLOONEY and country singer RANDY TRAVIS.
Steve Everett (CLINT EASTWOOD) is an investigative reporter with a lot of problems. An alcoholic, he's only been sober for two months. An unrelenting womanizer, he's on the verge of being thrown out by his wife, Barbara (DIANE VENORA). Thanks to his messy personal life, he has been fired from the New York Times. He has since relocated to the West Coast and The Oakland Tribune. If it wasn't for his friend Alan Mann (JAMES WOODS), the Tribune's editor-in-chief, he wouldn't have a job at all.
The move to the West Coast and the last-chance job have no effect on Everett's style, which infuriates the Tribune's stiff-necked assignment editor, Bob Findley (DENIS LEARY). Indeed, when Findley wants to send Everett on a particular assignment, the editor calls home and asks his wife, who is in bed with Everett at the time, to put the wayward reporter on the phone.
Findley has resorted to this desperate measure because another of his reporters, covering the impending San Quentin execution of convicted murderer Frank Beachum (ISAIAH WASHINGTON), has been killed in an automobile accident. The final interview with the condemned man there fore goes to Everett, who reluctantly begins to research the case, anticipating a routine story.
Despite the reoccurring complications in his own life, from the jalopy he drives to his collapsing marriage, Steve Everett is an excellent reporter. His background check on Frank Beachum, connected to the details of the robbery and homicide that took place in an Oakland convenience store, just doesn't add up. When he meets with Beachum at the prison, Everett receives information that confirms his instincts. He begins a manic search for information which will stay the condemned man's execution.
Everett's race against the clock in relentless pursuit of the truth keeps him chasing leads while Beachum sits on Death Row, the odds stacked against him and with Everett his only hope of survival.
Harried, hassled and trying not to self-destruct, Everett has less than 12 hours to save the life of a man he knows is innocent.
Shot on location in Oakland, California, and the surrounding East Bay of San Francisco, "True Crime" is Clint Eastwood's twenty-first film as a director. Returning to the area where he grew up and attended high school, Eastwood came to the project with Oakland in mind from the outset.
The book was written with St. Louis as the city where the story takes place but Eastwood liked the visual possibilities better with Oakland a city he knows well having grown up there and done a handful of films across the bay. "Dirty Harry" Callahan was a San Francisco homicide detective and was featured in five memorable films, all of which were made in San Francisco.
"True Crime" includes scenes shot at San Quentin prison, as well as locations in downtown Oakland, San Leandro, and the countryside surrounding Petaluma. The soundstage work took place at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, on sets which were specially constructed to duplicate the cells on San Quentin's Death Row and the prison's gas chamber.
Academy Award-winning production designer Henry Bumstead ("To Kill A Mockingbird," "The Sting") was enlisted to recreate the prison sets, having recently worked for Eastwood on "Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil," "Absolute Power" and "Unforgiven."
As an actor, Clint Eastwood has given Hollywood some of its most memorable characters. His most recent parts have included the cat burglar Luther Whitney from the 1996 hit "Absolute Power," the National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid from the 1995 blockbuster, "The Bridges of Madison County," and the Texas Ranger Red Garnett from the critically praised "A Perfect World" in 1994.
In 1993 Eastwood starred as Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, a man who had to come to terms with his own fallibility, in the $100 million hit "In The Line of Fire." It was "Unforgiven," however, in 1992, that marked a crucial point in Eastwood's career. The film was his 36th starring feature and his 10th Western. Presenting a tortured, alcoholic gunman named William Munny, Eastwood gave moviegoers the antithesis of the traditional Western hero. "Unforgiven" generated $100 million in box-office and nine Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Set Design, Best Sound and Best Editing). It received four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound. It also marked the first time in his career that Eastwood received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Eastwood's first break from his days as a contract player came in the well-documented move to the "Rawhide" television series, where he played cowboy Rowdy Yates. This led to the starring role in Italian director Sergio Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy, including "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More," and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly."
The enormous popularity of these films not only helped coin the expression "Spaghetti Western," but moved Eastwood into subsequent starring roles in a long string of hits such as "Hang 'Em High," "Coogan's Bluff," "Where Eagles Dare," "Paint Your Wagon," "Two Mules For Sister Sarah," "Kelly's Heroes" and "The Beguiled."
Eastwood made his debut as a director with "Play Misty For Me," in which he also starred, followed by the legendary "Dirty Harry" in 1970. Directed by Don Siegel, the film created another worldwide Eastwood persona, and was followed by films such as "Joe Kidd," "High Plains Drifter," "Magnum Force," "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," "The Eiger Sanction," "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "The Enforcer" and "The Gauntlet."
"Every Which Way But Loose," a comic-action film in which Eastwood starred opposite an orangutan named Clyde, became his biggest box-office grosser. It was followed by "Escape From Alcatraz," directed by Don Siegel, the whimsical "Bronco Billy," the sequel to "Every Which Way But Loose" in the form of "Any Which Way You Can," "Firefox," "Honkytonk Man" and "Sudden Impact."
"Tightrope" followed, a film widely praised by reviewers, which challenged Eastwood's conventional image of tough big-city cop. The comedy "City Heat" presented Eastwood in tandem with Burt Reynolds, while the enigmatic "Pale Rider" once again brought him back to a Western theme.
Eastwood then portrayed a Marine gunnery sergeant in "Heartbreak Ridge," returned to his fifth Dirty Harry film with "The Dead Pool," entertained the notion of a good-hearted bounty hunter in "Pink Cadillac," and trained a novice cop in the art of police work in "The Rookie."
In 1995, Eastwood was honored with the Irving Thalberg Award for Lifetime Achievement by The Motion Picture Academy at the annual Academy Awards.
JAMES WOODS plays the editor-in-chief of The Oakland Tribune and Steve Everett's friend and confidant. He is one of Hollywood's most prolific and talented actors. His recent "Ghosts of Mississippi" portrayal of Byron De La Beckwith, convicted murderer of civil-rights activist Medgar Evers, earned him his second Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination.
Woods' voice-over portrayal of Hades in Disney's animated "Hercules" won critical raves, as did his teaming with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey in Robert Zemeckis' "Contact."
Woods recently starred in "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Another Day In Paradise." He has worked for many of the film industry's greatest directors, including Oliver Stone ("Salvador," "Nixon"), Martin Scorsese ("Casino"), Harold Becker ("The Onion Field"), Elia Kazan ("The Visitors"), Arthur Penn ("Night Moves"), Ted Kotcheff ("Joshua, Then and Now"), Rob Reiner ("Ghosts of Mississippi") and Robert Zemeckis ("Contact").
DENIS LEARY is the assignment editor for The Oakland Tribune and Steve Everett's immediate boss.With a background in comedy standup Leary's feature credits include the role of a rebellious ladybug in Dreamworks' "A Bug's Life"; an ensemble role in "Monument Ave."; a role opposite Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson's Oscar-nominated "Wag the Dog"; an appearance in Tom DiCillo's "The Real Blonde" and a starring role opposite Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis in "The Ref."
ISAIAH WASHINGTON is a young actor on the rise with key roles in "Out of Sight," "Clockers," "Bulworth," "Love Jones," "Get On The Bus," "Girl 6," "Dead Presidents," "Crooklyn" and "Mixing Nia."
DIANE VENORA, who plays Barbara Everett, Steve Everett's long-suffering wife and mother to his seven-year-old daughter won rave reviews for her smoldering performance in "Heat" opposite Al Pacino, and for her empowering portrait in "Surviving Picasso" with Anthony Hopkins. Her additional recent theatrical credits include "The Jackal," with Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier; and "Eaters of The Dead," with Antonio Banderas and Omar Sharif.
SYDNEY TAMIIA POITIER, who plays the assistant to city editor Bob Findley, is the daughter of legendary actor, director and producer Sidney Poitier and she is a graduate of New York University, with a degree in acting.
Poitier starred in the Showtime feature "Free of Eden," as well as in the independent film "Park Day," which won the Audience Award at the 1998 UrbanWorld Film Festival.
"True Crime" has a screenplay by Larry Gross and Paul Brickman and Stephen Schiff, based on the novel by Andrew Klavan. The film is produced by Richard D. Zanuck & Lili Fini Zanuck; it is produced and directed by Clint Eastwood.
For further information contact Warner Bros on 00 1 818 954 6277/954 6265
SHOTLIST: SHOWS :
PULL BACK EXTR THEATRE ; ARRIVAL VING RHAMES AND GEORGE CLOONEY ; SOT RHAMES ; CLIP FROM TRAILER ; ARRIVAL ISAIAH WASHINGTON ; SOT WASHINGTON ; NOAH WYLE ARRIVAL ; SOT WYLE ; FRANCES FISHER AND DAUGTER (WHO IS IN MOVIE ALSO) POSE FOR PICTURES ; SOT FISHER (ON HOW HER DAUGHTER GOT A ROLE BEFORE SHE DID) ; CLIP FROM MOVIE ; SOT DIANE VERONA ; PULL UP CHILD TO CLINT ; SOT CLINT ; CLIP FROM FILM ?