December
16The Show will go on!
After nestling in the Sunday morning spot on AMC these several years, the show will now migrate to a different time and different neighborhood. It already occupies many “hoods”, to be sure – it’s broadcast in more than 50 different countries around the world and also in syndication in many U.S. cities.
In closing this chapter of Shootout, I can’t help but reflect fondly on the many TV encounters over these last several years. The advantage we’ve had on our show is time – the ability to sustain a conversation for half an hour or so and thus avoid the time constraints of the late-night talk circuit.
While some of our guests were aggressive in talking about their projects of the moment, many also reflected on the past. Steven Spielberg reminded us that on “Jaws,” he was given a $3.5 million budget and a 50-day shooting schedule. The film cost $7 million and ate up 105 days – “A near-death experience,” Spielberg recalled. Because of the overage, Lew Wasserman, the boss of Universal at the time, told his young director that he would have to open the movie not only in every theater in America, but also in “every barn and fire station.”
Fortunately, “Jaws” filled all those venues to overflow.
Spielberg was a great guest. Fortunately, we had many others as well. The most aggressive probably was Shirley MacLaine, who took one look at our set and decreed, “You guys have no idea how to light senior women.” She stared at her hosts and added, “Or senior men.”
She rolled up her sleeves and re-created the entire set. We never changed it back.
Many other moments flash back to me after these several years.
- George Clooney observing (with pain) that the remote town in Africa he’d just left the night before had just been wiped out by neighboring tribes who were jealous of the clean water and medical supplies he’d helped them acquire.
- Kate Winslet wondering why Leonardo DiCaprio, having waited with her hour after hour for the “right” lighting on their final “Titanic” embrace, chose to eat an odoriferous onion sandwich just prior to their farewell kiss.
- Denzel Washington acknowledging that the only way he could negotiate with Harvey Weinstein on the budget of “The Great Debaters” was to recruit his mother to talk directly to Harvey’s mother.
- Clint Eastwood recalling that after digging into “Flags of Our Fathers,” he impulsively decided it might “only be fair” to hire a writer to present “the other point of view” – hence, “Letters from Iwo Jima.”
- Sean Combs explaining that he was now determined to build an acting career around his real name and that he was no longer the various characters embodied by his past ghetto monikers – P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, et al.
- Roman Polanski acknowledging that he truly missed working in Hollywood but that, even if all the past charges were dismissed, it might not be good for him or his career to move back.
- Ron Meyer expressing bewilderment over why Sumner Redstone thought he could “fire” Tom Cruise – “You can’t fire Tom Cruise!”
- Francis Ford Coppola reflecting that my personal role in persuading and prodding him to direct the first “Godfather” represented a setback for his career because he became stereotyped as a director of “gangster pictures” instead of focusing on the personal art movies he was bent on creating.
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It is both hilarious & surreal that one of the posts requested that the subject of greed & corruption in Hollywood be addressed since Guber has been the quintessential purveyor of both traits during a career in which he constantly took credit for making creative contributions to films he did nothing more than package.
Guber's self-centered arrogant personality will not be missed by viewers. I think the only reason viewers tuned in to SHOOTOUT at all was when the series landed a prominent articulate film-maker or actor. Otherwise the series appeared greased with self-serving
Posted by: Sammy Ross | 9/23/2009 4:33:51 PM
Please let us know where you are going As an old(72) actor stuck in the hinterlands Shootout made my Sundays and your insights were fun
Posted by: dskatz | 1/11/2009 9:49:00 AM
Peter, please, give us a hint where you'll land. I particularly enjoyed the Shootouts during awards season and from Sundance.
Posted by: Laurie Mann | 1/9/2009 5:57:42 PM
I have watched every episode of your show and enjoyed the series very much. I'll miss you on Sunday morning. Hope you start your new program soon. I'll keep alert to your new destination.
Posted by: Roberta | 12/27/2008 5:26:19 AM
I don't care for the hosts, but the interviews on AMC Shootout are always interesting. To leave it so up in the air is quite dumb. How is anyone supposed to know when it's coming back exactly? I certainly won't go out of my way to visit Variety.com (Even saying it makes me cringe), because you people are so bland (What them on Reelz Channel sometimes, they're all crusty old dudes, with 1 woman, and they hate every new movie they review on Dailies).
So anyway, tell me where the new "hood" is immediately.
Posted by: MCWHAMMER | 12/24/2008 1:41:10 PM
thank you for serving up this Sunday treat every week - ...Bart, you're a hero. Guber - be done already!
Posted by: cjp | 12/23/2008 10:42:28 PM
I look forward to seeing your work wherever you land but I really hope you return to your original format of two segments of the two Peters being honest about movies and one short one kissing actor's butts. You lost some credibility for me when you lavish praise all over the same performer you made fun of the previous week.
Posted by: Bea | 12/22/2008 1:30:06 PM
Having been a loyal viewer for the past 5 years, I wonder where and when Shootout will return. Has the deal not been made yet? This is the only show which examines the inner workings of Hollywood. Mr. Bart, kindly let us know when Shootout is coming back.
Posted by: Stuart | 12/21/2008 2:36:14 PM
Just saw the last show and I'm sorry to see it go - will be looking for it "somewhere".
Thanks for the years, ya it may had been "flup" at times but did what few programs had done, show another face to the person on the screen.
Posted by: rodzoom | 12/21/2008 12:41:57 PM
Too bad for AMC: Shootout was the only programming on AMC that I would go out of my way to watch. I'll be watching to see where Shootout lands.
Posted by: ct | 12/17/2008 8:13:54 PM
This is just a quick comment. Four Christmases is what I now think of Hollywood producing--trash. Bimbos and B-list actors trying to be movie stars. Yech. It's been fun, but whoever the man is behind that curtain--we see you, and we don't like you,
Well, all but Clint Eastwood, who seems to have kept his integrity intact.
Posted by: scotsfury | 12/17/2008 5:22:58 PM
It''s "karma"...as to corruption in Hollywood, try reading Nathanael West''s "Day of the Locust". Not to let anyone off the moral hook, but it ain''t new.
Posted by: Same As It''s Ever Been | 12/17/2008 4:18:20 PM
nice stories,Peter
Posted by: bob | 12/17/2008 10:23:02 AM
Peter & Peter did nothing more than promote a false romanticism about showbusiness with shootout. What they failed to recognize is that this is an industry that is headed for some bad carma. The gates can't hold off the Barbarians any longer. Some of you out there know exactly what's coming and how devestating a change it will be. For everyone. Good night and good luck.
Posted by: louis LA | 12/17/2008 10:20:52 AM
Topics Mr. Guber & Mr. Bart missed. Let''s talk corruption. Today''s Hollywood. Greedy. Soulless. Self-serving. I knew a guy, maybe a c-lister by showbusiness standards. He used to sell pitches and then find hungry, broke, starving young writers to draft the scripts for him because he couldn''t spell, or frame a sentence. He paid them enough to starve. They did ALL the work. This is not uncommon.
Posted by: mlp nyc | 12/17/2008 10:03:22 AM
What will be the new chapter for you Mr. Bart? You seem to have maybe not done it all, but at least "seen it all."
Posted by: Georgian | 12/17/2008 6:22:48 AM