After seeing 90 minutes of "Lolita," a studio head told director Adrian Lyne, then seeking U.S. distribution for his controversial movie, "The footage is unequivocally extraordinary." Lyne never heard another word from that executive.
Another studio chief came racing out of a screening of "Lolita," ordaining Lyne "a genius." Executives at that studio would later say "Lolita" was essentially an art film that was too great a financial risk to release.
There may have been myriad reasons for these rejections--including that some executives simply didn't like his movie--but in Lyne's view, the Hollywood establishment was scared off by his $58-million screen version of Vladimir Nabokov's 1954 novel for no other reason than it deals with the taboo subject of pedophilia.
"It had nothing to do with finances. They were frightened. Peer pressure, if you like," said the outspoken 57-year-old British director, who has made his home in Provence, France, since 1983.
Not even Paramount Pictures, the studio for which Lyne had delivered such blockbusters as "Flashdance," "Fatal Attraction" and "Indecent Proposal," would step up for what would have amounted to $10 million in marketing and release costs.
"It would have been an expensive favor," said a source familiar with the situation.
As it turned out, Showtime Networks--a wholly owned subsidiary of Paramount's parent company, Viacom Inc.--wound up making a $4-million deal to acquire the U.S. rights to "Lolita," which stars Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons, newcomer Dominique Swain as Lolita, Melanie Griffith and Frank Langella. The two-hour, 17-minute movie will debut Sunday on the premium cable network, with three additional airings throughout the month.
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Showtime cut a deal with Samuel Goldwyn Co. to release the movie theatrically after its U.S. premiere on the network. Goldwyn made what sources said is a $2-million prints and advertising commitment to release the film Sept. 25 in Los Angeles and New York, followed by its release across the country.
Last week, "Lolita" had a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in a Beverly Hills theater. With no consumer advertising, the film grossed $41,089, according to Jeff Lipsky, Goldwyn's marketing and distribution chief who characterized the reception as "spectacular" and indicative of a very strong "want-to-see" among moviegoers.
Showtime programming chief Jerry Offsay, the first entertainment executive to embrace Lyne's movie, suggested that distributors turned their backs on the movie because "they were afraid of the controversy. . . . It wasn't a Friday night date movie."
But, interestingly, Lipsky said the makeup of last week's audience was largely female and young couples.
Offsay recalled a recent dinner with a studio executive who told him, "It's perfect for you, because in the privacy of the living room, people can feel comfortable watching that subject matter."
Lyne sees great hypocrisy in the fact that studios--which have no compunction about releasing slasher movies and others glorifying heinous crimes and hateful characters--are afraid to be associated with a "dirty" film like "Lolita," which is based on one of the most highly regarded novels of the century.
"For some reason, the subject matter just petrifies them," said Lyne. "You can make a film about necrophilia or a 13-year-old girl getting chopped up by cannibals, and that's OK. But this is a hot potato."
Adapted by first-time screenwriter Stephen Schiff, Lyne's "Lolita" faithfully recounts the tragic story of an angst-ridden fortysomething college professor's obsessive passion for a pre-pubescent girl, who, by his design, becomes his stepdaughter.
Lyne is a passionate fan of Nabokov's novel and wanted to make sure his screen version would adhere to the book more than Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version did.
The director said he first read the book as a kid "for all the wrong reasons. . . . I just flipped through it looking for the spicy bits, but not really finding any." He then reread it "properly" about 10 years ago, while making "Jacob's Ladder" for Carolco Pictures.
"I was just bewitched by it," recalled Lyne, who first discussed the idea of making the film with Warner Bros. Lyne also mentioned his interest to Carolco co-founder Mario Kassar, who then bought the rights outright from legendary agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar for $1 million.
Lyne said Schiff was the one writer "who was prepared to put more of the novel into the script rather than himself, whereas the other ones were more concerned with making it a Pinter screenplay or a Mamet screenplay."
During the pre-production phase, Carolco went bust and sold the rights to Chargeurs, a French company that subsequently spun off its entertainment assets to Pathe, which took over the film's financing.
A long and laborious shoot in various locations across America--hampered by bad weather and other logistical problems--caused the budget to swell considerably from the $40-million range, where it had started.
