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"Betty Boop" drops in on producer Steve Leiva

Twenty years ago, I was directing the ill-fated  Betty Boop Movie for Richard Zanuck and MGM Studios. We were doing casting sessions - producers Jerry Rees and Steve Leiva, casting director Ronnie Yeskel  and me.  A parade of famous faces came through my office for three solid weeks.  What I found very surprising was the anxiety they felt about auditioning.  Many of them asked our receptionist if we were cool, and left saying, "That was the most fun I ever had at an audition."  No one told me we were supposed to be cruel to them.

To drop a few names....Chris Penn gave an hilarious read, came back ten minutes later, and asked to do it again.  Teri Garr was in a mood after getting horribly lost on the way, but about half way through her audition, she got that spark in her eye - the one you fell in love with in her movies.   We gave her a round of applause when she finished. We met with Bud Cort of Harold and Maude fame.  Paul Reubens, then recently of Florida porn theater arrest fame.  Met Shelley Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Helen Hunt, Virginia Madsen - had instant crushes on them all.  Ned Beatty came in to tell us that he does not read for parts and how dare we ask so much of the man who was raped in Deliverance.  Okay, Ned.  

With all the stars coming through our little studio offices in Burbank, our crew never expressed more than a cursory interest in what was going on.  But one afternoon, there was a big commotion.  I saw people walking with great purpose past my door toward the lobby, and lots of laughter and chatter.  Ronnie called to me, "Steve, I have someone here to meet you."

Deja Boop

Fed Ex delivered two boxes today from art director Fred Cline - boxes full of original materials from the ill-fated Betty Boop feature from 1993.  He found them while cleaning out his garage and was kind enough to ship them to me.  Original storyboards - an entire first pass - were in one box.  Another box had animation tests, scripts, and animatics of a few songs from demos by jazz great  Bennie Wallace.  Seeing this stuff again brought back a lot of lost memories, including the sadness we all felt when the plug was pulled.

I called Fred on his cel phone to thank him for the boxes. We talked for about two minutes when someone in the background interrupted him.  I heard him say, "I'm talking to Steve Moore." Then he laughed and the phone went silent.  Not completely silent, but like he set the phone down and walked away.  

"Hello?  Fred?  Hello?"

About fifteen minutes later, Fred called back. Turns out the guy in the background was Henry Selick and he was calling an emergency meeting.  Fred was in San Francisco storyboarding on Henry's new feature for Disney.  He couldn't say any more about it, and was again interrupted by a background voice. 

"Steve, I have go."  

I thanked Fred again for the Betty Boop materials, then hung up.  Ninety minutes later, I read that Henry's project had just been killed by Disney.  Holy shit!  It was like The Boop Movie all over again.

My heart goes out to Fred, Henry, and the crew.  I know exactly how they feel right now.  It's a very sickening part of the business, where studio gatekeepers can completely fuck so many people over.  Of course, I don't know the whole story, but I'm inclined to side with the artists.  I'm like that, and it's usually the right bet.  

And I usually ask, "Is it a good time to call?"

-Steve

Remembering Mr. Z

I was saddened to read of the passing of Richard Zanuck, film producer and one time head of 20th Century Fox.  What many of you may not know is that Richard Zanuck,  producer of Jaws and Driving Miss Daisy, once had a connection to animation, and I was part of it.

In 1993, the Zanuck Company began pre-production on a Betty Boop feature to be done through MGM Studios.  It was the baby of Richard Fleischer, veteran director of films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,  and Fantastic Voyage.  His father was Max Fleischer, who, with Uncle Dave, created a studio which at one time rivaled Disney.  Their star was Betty Boop.  Richard Fleischer inherited the rights to Betty, and approached Zanuck, an old friend from their days at 20th Century Fox, to make a Betty Boop feature.

Jerry Rees and Steve Leiva were hired as producers and they, in turn, hired me to direct. We began the development process with a small crew in a Burbank office building.

There were weekly meetings at the Beverly Hills offices of The  Zanuck Company, in Richard's office.  My first time there, Richard Zanuck stepped out from behind a huge desk, shook my hand and said, "Dick Zanuck.  Nice to meet you."

I never, ever, called him Dick.  This man was Hollywood royalty.  He produced some of the best films ever done.  His father, Darryl F. Zanuck, MADE 20th Century Fox.  This was Richard Frikkin' Zanuck, man!  "Dick" was just way too familiar, too equal par, for a first time director from South Jersey.  I called him Mr. Z.  

Richard and Lili Zanuck winning Oscars for Driving Miss Daisy.

Entering his office, to the right, was a seating area with matching gold couch and chairs surrounding a heavy duty coffee table.  In the two dozen or so meeting I had there, the seating arrangement never changed.  As the last hired of the group, I got the only seat left - the ottoman.  To my left, sat Jerry Rees, then Steve Leiva. Lili Zanuck, Richard's wife and business partner, sat on the couch directly across from me.  To her left was Richard Fleischer (who also insisted on being called Dick), then Mr. Z in His chair.  

At the start of one such meeting,  he looked to me and said, "Steve, you always get the ottoman." 

As I was shrugging it off, Lili patted the couch next to her and with a flirtatious smile said, "You can sit over here."  

The room erupted in laughter as my face turned beet red. I stammered, "Ohm uh....I'm afraid of you."

Richard laughed out loud. "Afraid?  She hasn't even gotten started yet!"

The fear I mentioned was in reference to her tendency to explode in meetings.  Lili's a petit, gorgeous woman with a razor sharp wit and vocabulary that could make Bluto blush. Inevitably, in every meeting,  she would get into a nuclear argument with Steve Leiva.  Steve liked to preach about filmmaking, and Lili would have none of it.  She would tear into him with a bombastic barrage which, for the layman, would kill them instantly.  But Steve kept coming,  not conceding an inch with a haughty snort.  Lili would go apoplectic. The sound of Steve's voice would make her squirm on the couch, twisting her body away from him.  She would place her hand to her brow to block him from peripheral view, all while continuing her verbal mauling.  It was simultaneously hilarious and painful to watch.  Eventually, Richard, or "Bully" as she called him, would step in, and he and Fleischer would have the final word.   

Six months into pre-production on Betty Boop, regime change at MGM put the project in turnaround. We set up a Boop pitch room at The Zanuck Company,  which stayed up for a few years as they tried to set the film up at other studios.  But Fleischer's Boop deal was not favorable.  Studios wanted to control the merchandizing revenue, so the project died.   The artwork, reels, and recordings generated over that time were dispersed among the crew.

  

Betty Boop Movie Development painting by Fred Cline

It was through Richard Zanuck that I met musician and friend Bennie Wallace.  Bennie did several demo recordings for the film.  He would later score my 1997 short Redux Riding Hood and 1999's The Indescribable Nth.  I can't imagine these films without Bennie's score, but without Richard Zanuck, we would have never met.  I sent Lili a copy of The Nth, and she was so kind to call me with compliments.  She's tops in my book.  My heart goes out to her, dealing with the loss of her "Bully". 

Years after Boop, I called Mr. Z.  His secretary didn't remember me, took my name and number, and I figured he'd get back to me eventually, but he's a very busy man.  He called me that same afternoon.  I thanked him for that, and he said his father told him to always return calls on the same day, no matter what.  

He was truly a class act, and Hollywood is a more terrible business without him.    

   

-Steve

Read more about The Boop Movie here.