The Burning of Atlanta

Today I name names. Nicely, though.

On the morning of the third day of shooting we still do not have our second lead cast. A woman in her 60's or 70's, full of verve and vinegar and dying of lung cancer. Jewish. Caustic. Funny. The prototype for the role, Anne Bancroft, sadly left us a couple of years ago. We've made an offer to aLiving Legends who, as discussed in this blog, passed. We gave The Network a list of available goddesses. Ten of them, any of whom I would leap with joy at the idea of working with. You would think they'd be quick to approve one or another of them. You would be wrong. The Head of Casting was unable for a few days to get the Head of the Network's attention. When he did, most of the names were crossed off the list as being "not promotable" "too episodic TV" or "we used her in a movie three years ago." Then, finally, the news came down.

"We authorize an offer of one million dollars to Bette Midler."

Gentle reader, I would walk a thousand miles on my knees to the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadelupe in Mexico to get Bette Midler for this movie. But you don't send Bette Midler a script and say "you need to read this tonight and give us an answer by 10 tomorrow morning." You. Just. Don't. And what you most especially do not do, after the agent has very clearly said, "If you want Bette to even THINK about this, offer a million", get cold feet and offer $725,000. The agent hollered in indignation at the news. "I fucking told you that if you were serious you had to offer a million!!!" The offer was not upped. Here's the really nasty part: with the clock ticking away, and with an actress needing to land in Winnipeg to perform this part no later than 12/7, the offer was not officially made as of close of business last night. The network moves in slow motion. Actual time in the real world does not.

How long will Bette take to play out? (And by the way, if she does the movie, which strikes me as spectacularly unlikely, I delete this post.) On top of that, the network refuses to approve another name to go to in the case that Bette doesn't go for it. So that's potentially a day or two of more dicking around before we can make the next move.

Here's what I remind myself: when you watch Gone with The Wind, notice that as Rhett whips his horses and drives Scarlett through the chaos of the burning of Atlanta, Scarlett has a blanket over her head. Not to protect her from smoke inhalation. She's wearing the blanket because Scarlett had not yet been cast, and Selznick just plain had to start shooting. In fact, it was on the set, during the shooting of the fire, that a casting director introduced Selznick to a promising but relatively unknown British actress names Vivien Leigh.

And by the way: the first two days have gone wonderfully well. More on that later.