Charlie Evans Jr

I first met Charlie Evans Jr when he and his partner at the time, Carroll Kemp, both saw an episode of my series (Interview) on TV as they sat in their respective homes one evening. The next morning they told each other that they'd found a new project to develop surprised that they had both watched the same show. They called and took me to dinner and we made a deal. The project was ultimately purchased by Dawn Steel and went to Warner Bros. During some of the story conferences, my young son Sean would be playing on the floor with his toys near the conference table in Charlie's office as we discussed story elements.

Charlie occasionally held 'music evenings' where he would invite friends to dinner and everyone brings three pieces of music that have been significant to them in some way. The photo seen here is from February of 2006. On the far left is Stefan Wente who studied in Paris with his friend Roman Polanski. Stefan was a partner of the Paris Opera’s prima-ballerinas Yvette Chauvire and Lycette Darsonval. He choreographed numerous ballets and a number of films such as Logan’s Run, Our Man Flint, Fantastic Voyage and Warren Beatty’s Reds.

Seated next to me in the striped shirt is Charlie. Standing behind him is Randal Kleiser who directed Grease, The Blue Lagoon, Summer Lovers, etc. These evenings were interesting and brought together a diverse collection of personalities--rather like my Elysée Wednesday gatherings. It was the sort of evening one would expect to encounter in Paris but seldom, if ever, in Los Angeles.

Charlie is an astute film producer. I was privy to a behind-the-scenes perspective on how he originated and brought The Aviator, starring Leo DiCaprio, to the screen. He is also an excellent photographer. His shots from Burning Man (looking like 70mm frames from a contemporary Fellini film were Federico around today) and a trip to Cuba among others are extraordinary. His exhibition Sex Lives of Mannequins was eerily provocative.

Charlie was producer/director on Addiction Incorporated, a documentary about the tobacco industry on which I had the pleasure of contributing my efforts as co-producer. Charlie tells the story in a way that builds suspense and anticipation through to the end.

Charlie is an immensely talented individual possessing an intelligent curiosity that makes his work worthy of study.

Watch Addiction Incorporated on Amazon Video Direct.

Ferrari: Victory by Design

Hosted by the man to whom I sold my GTO, Alain de Cadenet.

Ignorance is Bliss (an excerpt)

A story proving that one man can make a difference--unfortunately.

Normally, Martin thought of walking distance as about three puffs on a cigarette. Any more than that and you'd gone too far. Nevertheless, he was into his second Pall Mall before it dawned on him that his car was either lost or stolen. The idea shocked him. The car, a 1959 Cadillac Sedan de Ville bearing Congressional plates, was not the sort of vehicle thieves would find enticing. In fact, nobody that knew him seemed to understand Martin's attachment to the relic. And, of course, he never bothered to explain that the first grown woman he'd ever seen naked drove such a car. Most people would likely see that as some sort of retrograde fixation, Martin being only thirteen at the time. She had been a friend of his mother and she drove a black-on-black convertible. The closest Martin could come to that had been the rose-colored Sedan de Ville.

As he trudged on in search of his car, it occurred to Martin that he was being followed. He was hearing what sounded like footsteps dogging him. He turned to look, but there was no one to be seen. However, as he walked along, the sound continued and Martin was becoming irritated. Suddenly, he wheeled around and shouted at the top of his voice, "What happened!" It wasn't what he had meant to say, but that was moot since no one was there anyway. He walked on beginning to feel sorry for himself and dreading the possibility that his car was lost forever. And then he realized what the noise was. It was he. Actually, it was his shoes. They were full of water and making a squishing sound with each step he took.

Tiring of the quest, Martin hailed a cab, which turned out to be a police car. The rest of the evening--or rather morning since the police report cited 2:15 am as the time Martin had been taken into custody--was spent entertaining law enforcement while waiting for his attorney to appear. When the man finally showed up, it wasn't the one Martin had been expecting. Instead, it was an attorney he'd met only once in order to finalize Martin's purchase of a racehorse that died a week later.

"Don't say anything to anyone," the attorney told Martin.

"What do you mean?" Martin wanted to know.

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"What about my car?" Martin asked him.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. You're going to need a good criminal firm. There's one in particular that I can recommend."

"Why would I be in need of a criminal just to report my car stolen?" Both men chose to ignore the mistake.

"Please allow me to advise you against trying to formulate a defense at this stage without the help an attorney."

Martin wanted to extract a fuller explanation but the man was gone. So, too, was Martin as the police escorted him from the building. Bail had been arranged.

The sergeant waved him off. "Have a nice day, Senator."

Copyright 2010 Stephen Mitchell

Dead Right

It was during the filming of Dead Right that I learned the best way of checking into a hotel room. We were in Las Vegas for what ordinarily would be some second unit filming so there were just three of us--the director of photography, the leading man and me. We had three comped rooms at the Aladdin Hotel (thanks to Kathi Carey who played the female lead in the film, was my right hand during the production and made the arrangement after Someone Else failed to do so--more on this later) and were shown to our rooms by the same bellman who had all our luggage on his trolley. We stopped first at the DP's room and the bellman carried the man's personal luggage and the camera equipment cases into the room and did not receive a tip for his efforts. The next stop was at the room of the leading man where, once again, the bellman was stiffed getting no tip from Mr. Tall, Dark & Handsome. We finally arrived at my room where, after off-loading my luggage, I tipped the bellman twenty dollars. He accepted the bill and went immediately to the room phone and dialed downstairs. "This room is unsuitable for Mr. Mitchell," he said into the phone and advised them of my new room number. After putting my luggage back onto the trolley, he delivered me to another room which turned out to be a suite. As he left me in my upgraded surroundings, he said, "If there is anything you need in Las Vegas while you are here, just call down and ask for me. I'll tell them to put you through regardless of the time."

It was fitting that the last shooting days on this film took place in Las Vegas because that is where the deal was hatched to co-produce the movie with my Italian partner. I had attended a film market in Las Vegas and instead of going to a seminar about how to find funding for films, I went from suite to suite looking at the films being offered by the many distributors and sales reps there. I was getting tired and decided to have a rest so I sat down in a suite belonging to DB Media. As luck would have it, one of the two brothers who owned the company returned from an appointment and asked me what I wanted. I couldn't exactly say I'd just come in to sit for awhile so I told him about my previous trips to Italy and that I could make a feature film for [sum of money deleted]. His name was Vito di Bari and he didn't believe me. I assured him that I was being truthful. "What kind of film?" Come down the hall and I'll show you. The company representing my film Bleeder & Bates had a suite on the same floor.

We put a cassette into the VCR and Vito watched the first ten minutes of Bleeder. He then scanned forward and watched ten minutes in the middle. Then he fast-forwarded and watched the end. "What kind of film do you want to make?" he asked. Just like the one you saw, I told him--a thinking man's cop drama with an existential theme and Machiavellian politics. We went out into the hallway and made a verbal deal to make the movie.

Filming Dead Right took me, once again, to the El Mirage dry lake bed that I first visited working on Sole Survivor so many years earlier. Making Dead Right was the best and worst of experiences. I enjoyed working with all but one of the actors and we were very lucky in securing the locations that made the film feel special. Although Vito and I got on famously, he lived in Italy and the fellow who ran the office in Los Angeles did everything within his power to sabotage the production. He failed to contact Porsche of America and Ford for cars we would have used in the film (though he led us to believe that he had). He 'lost' a ten minute roll of film shot in Las Vegas before it went to the lab and canceled editing and mixing dates without notifying me knowing that I was obligated to deliver the finished film in time for the MIFED market in Milan--a very short deadline. Talk about Machiavellian politics!

The efforts to subvert the production were all for naught. Within days of its completion, the film sold in some thirty countries at MIFED and Vito told me that the movie opened up markets for the company where they had not sold previously. The story of how government, law enforcement and organized crime work in concert seemed to appeal to the world market. The poster line was 'For a cop on the wrong side of the law, every move has to be right--Dead Right'. Though I attracted an offer from a US distributor, I don't think that DB Media ever consummated the deal and a US sale was never reported to me. The company subsequently went out of business.

I like to put interesting cars into my films and this time I had one of the leads driving my recently acquired Lincoln Continental MkIII which was in pristine condition--I had purchased it from a gentleman who kept it in a carpeted garage and I had to undergo extensive scrutiny by him before he agreed to sell the car to me. If he knew I'd taken it out onto El Mirage, he probably would have killed me. The MkIII can be seen on the film's poster.

Nick Mason's GTO

This GTO belongs to Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) and is seen here lapping Silverstone though Nick is not at the wheel in this video. Can you imagine driving a Ferrari GTO on the street every day as I was fortunate enough to do for a number of years and enjoying these sights and sounds everywhere you went?

Nick can be seen driving his GTO in the video I shot here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-5JNxVVkDA