A Letter To UNIVERSAL STUDIO EXECS about MAN ON THE MOON!

Dear Universal Pictures,

Your Marketing people do not know what they are talking about. Your Executives are without a clue. And apparently you have a great film that you do not know what to do with.

The Film? MAN ON THE MOON.

It has come to my attention that Milos Foreman has recently screened, basically, his final cut of MAN ON THE MOON, the Jim Carrey/Andy Kaufman Biopic/Drama from the writers of ED WOOD and THE PEOPLE VS LARRY FLYNT.

And ya know what? I heard that you and your marketing people are in a state of PANIC.

The Marketing people believe the film is unsellable. Undoubtedly because the movie is a dead on delivery of the script, I’m told, and that the last half of the film is ‘gut wrenchingly painful’.

As for you Execs.... Well I hear you aren’t happy either. I hear Jim Carrey isn’t Jim Carrey in the film. Shock! I hear that he isn’t real funny in the role either. Instead, I hear he’s Andy Kaufman and that Carrey is invisible inside the role. I also hear that you execs didn’t like the script too much, but figured that... well... It’s Milos Foreman and Jim Carrey... They’ll do something colorful and funny.

Meanwhile, I hear that the United Talent Agency isn’t accepting dramatic scripts for Jim Carrey because of Universal’s horror at MAN ON THE MOON... a film that doesn’t have a date on the release schedule, and that Universal desperately wants to make changes on.

However, Universal doesn’t want to Test Market the film cause they don’t want word to leak out about the fact that the movie is basically a creepy and dark mystery about the man we all knew as Andy Kaufman, that it leaves him a mystery... And my source that was at the screening felt the movie was brilliant. GUESS WHAT? Too Late.... I’ve heard!

Well....

Universal, I tell ya what. I understand you’re at wit’s end about this film. I mean... gosh... You can’t allow this film to damage the shiny pearl that is Jim Carrey and let him become a real actor. I mean... What would that mean for THE GRINCH.... or ME, MYSELF AND IRENE? You’ve got an investment to protect.

Ya can’t go and have the audience become afraid of Jim Carrey. But at the same time, you have to be careful to tiptoe around Carrey’s perception of how you’re treating this film cause it’s dear to his heart.

Ok... First off I want to introduce you to your director.... His name is Milos Foreman. He’s won two Academy Awards... One for directing ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST and one for AMADEUS. He was also nominated for his direction of THE PEOPLE VS LARRY FLYNT. He won the Grand Prize at Cannes for his fantastic film, TAKING OFF back in 1971. He is one of the most decorated directors of film in the world. His work is... Brilliant. And you are thinking of telling him how to change his portrait of a man who was himself a tragic genius trapped inside a seriously screwed universe of his own construction?

Have you ever seen AMADEUS?

There’s an exchange of dialogue that I really like between Jeffrey Jones and Tom Hulce about one of Mozart’s greatest musical achievements.

Mozart asks Emperor Joseph II, what is wrong with this piece of music... And this dolt, this peacock of a man says that there were simply too many notes... Cut a few out, and it’d be perfect. And Mozart retorts.... “Which notes?”

Universal... Don’t think because you are behind closed doors that I won’t talk about what’s going on. Milos Foreman is simply one of the most important filmmakers in the world right now. He’s a man doing brilliant work. In fact of all living filmmakers, he’s the closest living filmmaker to the level of work that Stanley Kubrick took on.

Jim Carrey is an actor trying to show that he is an actor. He’s been trapped inside the funnyman act for a while now, but ya know what? Carrey is good enough to do both. Others are too. Did LEAVING LAS VEGAS hurt Nicholas Cage’s box office clout when CON AIR and THE ROCK came along? Did DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and THE FISHER KING hurt Robin Williams when MRS DOUBTFIRE and PATCH ADAMS were released?

And ya know what? Audiences become entranced when an actor can become more than just the dog and pony act that started his career.

How to market the film? How about as a great film? Not a happy film, not a heart warming film, not as a feel good film.... But as...

A MILOS FOREMAN FILM

FROM THE ACADEMY AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR OF ‘ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST’ AND ‘AMADEUS’

Hell, show it to me, I’ll tell ya what to do.... Free of charge... Just cause I like ya so.

Believe it or not there is a world of film beyond the middle America touchy-feely zone. There is an audience for films that get into a man’s soul, that tells of the pain that lays there. And there is always a place for great films.

This isn’t new for Universal... Tonight I get to go see THE UNKNOWN... A Lon Chaney film about a knife thrower with no arms. A Universal Film.... Produced by Todd Browning... Where is he now?

Now.... Take a look at this TALK BACK... See what the audience thinks about unsafe films... Movies that leave a laceration on the psyche. See what they think of Milos Foreman, the director... and Jim Carrey, the actor.... and Andy Kaufman... the legend.