Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Ang Lee was pulling his hair out. He was in preproduction in China on his ambitious martial arts movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon when a silent investor pulled out. “It was the toughest movie I’d ever tried to make,” recalls Lee, who thought it was all over. But Columbia came to the rescue, thanks to a new initiative to assist local-language filmmaking in foreign markets. Gareth Wigan, a widely respected Sony exec, became involved, as did Barbara Robinson, who lived in Hong Kong and headed up Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, and was asked to meet with Lee in Taiwan. A coalition came together, including Columbia, China Film Co-Production Corp., Good Machine International, Edko Films and Zoom Hunt Productions. Michael Barker and Tom Bernard’s Sony Pictures Classics signed on to distribute Crouching Tiger domestically, while Columbia International handled international territories (excluding China). Lee was given a budget that would ultimately amount to $17million.
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“About halfway through the shoot, I realized I didn’t know what I was doing. A martial arts film is supposed to be trashy and pulpy, but I was trying to make it exquisite and culturally accurate,” says Lee. “I was using my A-plus standard to do a B movie.”
Lee, who is prone to worry, came out on top. Crouching Tiger was nominated for 10 Oscars — and won four, including for best foreign-language film — for its mix of martial arts, scenery and drama. It is regarded as one of the greatest wuxia, a subgenre of martial arts, ever made. The movie — starring Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen — became the first foreign-language film to cross the $100million mark in the U.S. on its way to resting at $128million, which is still the most ever grossed by a Chinese-language film. Globally, it pulled in north of $213million. The film’s memorable choreography and effects were the envy of every director in Hollywood, with some rushing to incorporate them into their own films. Lee remains grateful for the rescue mission. “I miss those days,” he says. “That sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore.”
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 22 Jump Street (2014)
After the first test screening for 22 Jump Street, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller knew they had a problem. Audiences loved the movie, but they hated the ending. The sequel to their 2012 reimagining of the ’80s TV show 21 Jump Street once again starred Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as undercover police officers posing as students, and in the original ending, their captain (Ice Cube) invites them on a new mission that teases a fictional third film: medical school. But instead of accepting, the guys flip off their captain and say they will never again go undercover. The test audience revolted.
“They’re like, ‘We love the movie, but the ending is depressing,’” recalls Miller of audience reactions. “‘We want to think we’re going to see hundreds of movies with these guys.’”
With the movie’s opening just 12 weeks away, then-studio boss Amy Pascal asked them to create a new ending, and they decided that if the audience wanted more adventures with Tatum and Hill, they’d deliver. Lord and Miller filled a white board with ideas for fictional sequels — vet school, culinary school, firefighter school — and spent a day running around the lot, shooting purported scenes from as many of them as they could with their leading men and guest stars like Bill Hader, Seth Rogen and Anna Faris.
“We basically shot in every single corner of the lot. Like it was Columbia Pictures in the old days and we were just using the backlot,” says Lord.
The one moment they regret not getting? They planned to film on the set of Jeopardy! for a mission about a scandal at a quiz show. But they were denied permission, as it was the day of the show’s season finale.
In the end, the last-minute work paid off. Says Miller: “It was everyone’s favorite part of the movie because it was just so outrageous.”
Antoine Fuqua
On receiving the “best studio note you could get” for The Equalizer(2014).
“After I did the very first cut, we had a big meeting with Amy Pascal. She came in the room and looked at the preview cards. We scored really high. She said, ‘Well, just don’t screw it up.’ We had our pens and pads out waiting for notes! And on [The Equalizer 3], we shot in Italy and most of the movie is in Italian. After the first preview, it was clear that the audience had no problem with that. ‘Just don’t screw it up!’”
Will Gluck, Anyone But You (2023)
Filmmaker Will Gluck had no shortage of offers from streamers wanting to make his romantic comedy Anyone But You — a genre many legacy studios had been fearful of embracing — but he knew from the get-go that he wanted audiences to see it on the big screen. And he knew there was only one studio he’d even ask: Columbia, where he’s made most of his films, including Annie and two Peter Rabbit movies (he made several others for sister label Screen Gems, including Easy A). “It was a little bit of a battle to convince everybody,” Gluck says. “I just had to explain how good the people in the movie are and how impactful a theatrical experience could be.”
Impactful is right. Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, opened to $8million over Christmas weekend, before grossing $88million domestically — an unheard-of multiple of 11 — thanks to strong word of mouth. (A multiple of three or four is dreamy, while five is sometimes possible for a hit holiday film.) Gluck’s pic made $131.6million overseas for a worldwide cume of $220.2million against a $25million budget. “There’s no one better to sit down with than Tom [Rothman] to talk about your movie script. Your script and your movie get better,” says Gluck. “I’m not just saying that. It gets better.”
This story first appeared in the July 31 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
