On the It Happened in Hollywood podcast, acclaimed director Terry Gilliam explained how his now-masterpiece dark dystopian comedy Brazil was nearly scrapped by Universal. But one of the movie stars, Robert De Niro, managed to save the movie masterpiece from oblivion.
“The studio didn’t like the movie at all,” Gilliam told T.He’s the Hollywood Reporter.
Universal executive at the time, Sid Sheinberg, told Gilliam that he “hated” the movie and insisted that he radically change the movie. When Gilliam refused, Sheinberg refused to release him.
Gilliam then thought: “We can’t fight them with the help of lawyers. Let’s go the other way.” So the director ran a full-page ad in Variety: “Dear Sid
Scheinberg, when are you going to release my Brazilian movie? Terry Gilliam”.
“That’s when it got out of hand,” Gilliam recalls. “They really did everything to stop his release.”
Refusing to give up, Gilliam reached out to “honest, decent journalists” who wanted to see the film: He would take them by bus to Mexico, where the film was in theaters, for them to see for themselves. “The film had already been released in Europe and received very good reviews, but it would not be released in the United States. This struggle went on and on,” the director recalls.
Scheinberg and Gilliam refused to communicate directly after their initial squabble. However, they communicated messages to each other through an intermediary.
“I was lucky enough to meet a guy named Jack Matthews, the art correspondent for the LA Times, and he saw the movie, he really liked it. He started making a fuss about it,” Gilliam said, “and kept talking between Sid Sheinberg and me.”
Then film industry star Robert De Niro, who is known for being very shy in the press, made a plan to promote the film for free.
Maria Shriver hosted Good Morning America. They’ve been wanting to interview De Niro for a very long time. Bobby has never acted in a movie commercial. That’s why he’s a hero to me. But she said, “Okay, they want to talk to me. We’re going to the show – you and me,” Gilliam said.
At one point in the show, Shriver turned to Gilliam, who was sitting next to De Niro, and said, “Terry, I understand you have problems with the studio.”
I said, ‘I don’t have a problem with the studio. I have a problem with a man. His name is Sid Sheinberg, and he looks like that,” Gilliam recalls, and I took out an 8×10 photo and shared it with the world. I just had fun, I was offended, and I got more and more publicity.
After that, a fantastic movie rumor broke out. “Then the Los Angeles Film Critics Association saw it,” the director said.
In the end, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized Brazil as best film, best screenplay, and Gilliam best director of 1985.
This convinced Scheinberg to release Brazil in the US.
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction and is currently considered one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.
Former Hollywood actor Robert De Niro in the open name and gender of their seventh child. Robert De Niro, 79, told CBS This Morning host Gail King in early April that he was the father of a daughter named Gia. The actor also confirmed that his seventh child is his mother’s girlfriend and martial arts instructor, 45-year-old Tiffany Chen.