RushPRNews’ Insider Reports– Ang Lee is “Taking Woodstock”

September 26, 2008

Ang Lee is “Taking Woodstock”, but how did this movie wind up in his hands?

by Dan Bloom

HOLLYWOOD(RUSHPRNEWS)09/26/2008 – Taiwan-born film director and Oscar winner Ang Lee is tackling a new movie project, a comedy this time, about America’s famous Woodstock music festival in 1969. Titled “Taking Woodstock”, and adapted by longtime Lee collaborator James Schamus, the movie stems from a book of the same name by U.S. writer Elliot Tiber.

Tiber’s memoir, co-written with Tom Monte, was published with in 2007 and subtitled “A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life”.

It’s set for a premiere in New York on June 26, 2009, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the famous Woodstock concert .

What does the title of the book, and the movie mean? Inquiring minds on both sides of the Pacific want to know, and one industry insider told Rush PR News what he knows.

“Taking Woodstock’” means two things: Taking stock of your life and, in a sense, control of your destiny — and also taking the experience of Woodstock, and what that cultural event meant, with you for the rest of your life, according to the industry insider. A marketing maven at the publishing house in New York came up with the phrase, he added.

How did a book that few people had even heard about wind up in Ang Lee’s hands? Was it fate, karma, serendipity?

“It might sound like something out of a Hollywood drugstore story where the pretty girl is ‘discovered’ by a savvy scout, but it really happened this way,” says one of the few people who knows about the genesis of the book and the movie. “Eliot Tiber was scheduled to appear on a TV show in San Francisco in 2007 to promote the book, and while he was waiting in the green room to go on the show, Ang Lee sat down beside him, by complete chance. Lee was also scheduled to appear on the same show to promote his current film at the time, ‘Lust, Caution’. Tiber, who had never met Lee before but knew his name, struck up a conversation with the Taiwan-born helmer and then spent the next thirty minutes or so chatting about his book. Lee had asked what the book was about, so Tiber told him.”

“Later, when Lee went on the show, the host asked him where he usually gets his ideas for his movies, and Lee said that he really doesn’t go looking for stories, that they seem to come to him. And with that he turned to Tiber, who was sitting across from him on the TV set, and gave him a wink,” the insider told this reporter.

“Fast forward to nine months later … Lee finally had read the book, loved it, and felt there was a very good movie there, so he headed to upstate New York to visit the farm where Woodstock took place in 1969. That’s the inside story in a nutshell: fate, karma, destiny,” the insider added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Bloom is a columnist for RUSHPRNEWS, based in Taiwan. He lives not far from Lee’s hometown in southern Taiwan. You may write him at danbloom@rushprnews.com

-Photos: Ang Lee in Cannes - courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Woodstock- on file

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Comments

One Response to “RushPRNews’ Insider Reports– Ang Lee is “Taking Woodstock””

Dan Bloom on September 28th, 2008 7:54 am

Alot of Ang Lee fans wonder just who is James Schamus and what role does he play in Lee’s films. Here one answer for the curious, from VARIETY, by David Hafetz, edited for space:

Ang Lee collaborator on TAKING WOODSTOCK mixes artistry, business skills

James Schamus — a fast-talking New Yorker with a weakness for bow ties and bookish round glasses — is frequently described as an intellectual, even an egghead. He moonlights as a professor at Columbia U., where he teaches film theory.

A mini-mogul, veteran screenwriter and award-winning producer, Focus Features CEO Schamus doesn’t do it all, but he comes close.

Since placing his doctoral thesis on the back burner two decades ago to dive into the nascent independent film movement, Schamus, 49, has played key roles in writing, financing and producing some of the more memorable recent American films, which is why he will receive the Woodstock Film Festival’s Trailblazer Award this month. The laurel recognizes his diverse skills and contributions to cinema, including his work on all of director Ang Lee’s features, from “Wedding Banquet” to “Ice Storm” to “Brokeback Mountain.”

Although he’s spent much of his career helping create and fund risky films that otherwise might not have been greenlighted — “Brokeback” being a case in point — the playful Schamus demurs when asked if he considers his work trailblazing.

“It depends,” he says, “on how you define ‘trail’ and ‘blaze.’ ”

Meira Blaustein, Woodstock Festival’s co-founder and executive director, is more effusive about Schamus’ work. “These are very high-quality projects that really do add to our world,” says Blaustein, adding that Schamus embodies a unique blend of writer, producer, studio exec and Ivy League prof.

“That’s a lot for one person, and it really puts him among the best,” Blaustein says. “He’s also nice and friendly.”

Together, Lee and Schamus have worked on 10 films together, including the upcoming “Taking Woodstock.” Schamus says he and Lee complement each other. Through ups and downs, they have continued collaborating, inspired partly, Schamus says, by their mutual commitment to “not fall in a rut.”

“The whole point is to not do something people have done before,” Schamus explains.

As a producer faced with tough sells, he has consistently wrangled financing by courting international investors and selling rights abroad. He’s been known to pay close attention to contract details and even devised the marketing campaign for “Crouching Tiger.”

And on the subject of trailblazing — which at past festivals has gone to the likes of Jonathan Sehring of IFC Entertainment and Ted Sarandos of Netflix — the quick-witted academic can’t resist a parting parse.

“I’m really much more of a footpath bender,” he says.