by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Hollywood and humble are two words rarely associated and hardly ever used in the same sentence. The glitz and glam of Tinseltown often overwhelms the most modest of folks, turning them into snipping, sniping, chain-smoking egomaniacs who both covet and loathe the camera’s lens.
While labeling everyone in Hollywood with that mentality isn’t totally fair, history has shown that those in front of the movie cameras often arrive in Hollywood with unassuming intentions, but are eventually transformed into larger-than-life personalities that shun the very spotlight that afforded them fame and fortune.
What about those behind the camera? The ones that help turn no-names into Oscar winners? Those that take obscure books and turn them into cult classics? The ones that start at the bottom and work their way to the top, helping other no-names become Hollywood legends along the way?
Sure, everyone knows who George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many people who would recognize the name Mike Medavoy. In 38 years of being in Hollywood, Medavoy has only been directly involved in some of the biggest blockbusters to ever grace the big screen. He’s responsible for launching the careers of both Lucas and Spielberg, paving the way for Luke and Han and Yoda and The Force along the way. He’s even written a book about his almost four-decade love affair with Hollywood.
All of this would surely be a formula for arrogance, conceit and pomposity, especially for someone who has worked with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwartzenegger and Tom Hanks over the years.
Hardly.
To understand why Medavoy — an executive with Phoenix Pictures, one of the production companies that’s currently filming the new John Travolta/Samuel L. Jackson movie “Basic” at Cecil Field — carries no chip on his shoulder you must trace his beginnings, literally.
The son of Russian Jews, Medavoy was born in the most improbable of places — Shanghai, China, where he lived until he was eight years old. Fleeing a country that was being ravaged by World War II, the family landed in China as strangers in a very strange land.
“My mother was one of 15 children,” explained Medavoy, who was in town last week to check on the progress of filming and promote his book, “You’re Only as Good as Your Next One.” “Seven of them died of starvation and four of them were killed by either the Russians or the Germans. The three who survived landed in Shanghai, my grandmother took them there. When they got to the Shanghai train station, my grandmother started to cry. She cried and cried and finally some man came along and said, ‘Why are you crying?’ She said, because we have no money and no place to stay.
“He said, ‘Well, I’ve got an extra room.’ The four of them moved into this little room and they survived and they eventually all wound up going to school and working. My parents got married there. My father was one of seven and three of them survived the war.”
Medavoy then lived in Chile until he was 16 when he moved to Long Beach, Calif. to live with his grandparents, who had made their way to the United States. Living most of his teenage years abroad gave Medavoy a little different take on life from the average American teen and he says that experience has impacted his life as an adult.
“It influences my thinking because it allows me to see a broader world,” said Medavoy of growing up in China and Chile. “We live in a global village and that global village is something we can’t escape. It basically informed me and formed me.”
The move to California proved to be the catalyst for Medavoy’s introduction to the movie industry, where he started at the bottom with Universal Studios.
“I worked in the mail room and the casting department,” he said. “It was interesting because it was the formative years of Universal.”
After a stint as a casting director for Universal, Medavoy made a radical and career-altering decision. Rather than languish in the hierarchy at Universal, Medavoy opted to become an agent. With no name recognition himself, Medavoy signed some of Hollywood’s most obscure directors. Fate was smiling on Medavoy at the time.
“At one point, I decided to go out and sign every young director out there,” said Medavoy. “I ended up with Spielberg and Lucas. It was an interesting ride.”
That may be a bit of understatement. Lucas and Spielberg went on to create “Star Wars” — perhaps the most successful movie series in history, among many others.
However, long before “Star Wars,” Medavoy was presented the opportunity to work on a film that starred a young, relatively unknown actor named Jack Nicholson in an adaption of the Ken Kesey novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Believe it or not, the idea was a tough sell in Hollywood.
“The script was shopped all over and turned down because Jack died at the end,” said Medavoy, who was with United Artists at the time. “We picked it up because we thought it was full of interesting people and had a great script. The rest is history.”
Another understatement. The film is widely regarded as one of the funniest, yet most disturbing, movies ever made. It did, though, launch Nicholson’s career.
While with United, Medavoy also worked on such films as “Apocalypse Now” and “Rocky.” Medavoy worked his way through the ranks at United, where he eventually served as senior vice president of West Coast production from 1974-78. However, in 1978 he grew disgruntled with United’s policies and, with others, created Orion Pictures.
The move proved, once again, to be a positive career change. While associated with Orion, Medavoy helped produce several films including major box office draws “The Terminator,” “Platoon,” “Silence of the Lambs” and “Amadeus.”
In 1990, Medavoy became the chairman of Tri-Star Picture where he was linked with such movies as “Philadelphia” and “Sleepless in Seattle.” Four years later, Medavoy left Tri-Star and joined Phoenix.
In “Basic,” Medavoy has reunited Travolta and Jackson, who last teamed in “Pulp Fiction.” The little-hyped film became an instant cult classic and reignited Travolta’s and Jackson’s smoldering careers. “Basic” is also a movie and concept that Medavoy likes.
“It’s a wonderful murder/mystery,” said Medavoy, explaining that the plot of “Basic” is fairly straightforward, but twists enough to keep you guessing. “It’s set in Panama and somebody gets killed. The question is: Who did it and how?
“The audience will be kept in suspense until the very last sequence. I defy anyone to figure it out before the end of the movie.”
Medavoy also likes Jacksonville, which is quietly becoming one of Hollywood’s most popular East Coast shooting locations. “Basic” is being shot predominantly at Cecil Field, which has been transformed from an abandoned military base into a Panamanian jungle. Through the magic of props and illusions, pines and live oaks have been morphed into a vine-covered tropical rain forest.
The ease with which Jacksonville and the surrounding area is able to go through that metamorphosis is just one factor that intrigues the Hollywood folks.
“It’s a great place to shoot,” said Medavoy. “Initially, people went to Hollywood because it was sunny and it was a place they could get away from the New York bankers. What New York banker is going come down here [Jacksonville] and bother anyone? So, that’s no longer a problem.
“It’s a terrific place and the people are really friendly and helpful. It’s a real terrific community and I can understand why people are going to move here. The experience had been fantastic and everyone has been cooperative. I have nothing to complain about.”
In addition to having several other projects in the pipeline, Medavoy is big on his book. The odd title seems to contradict the attitude that most have, and that is you are only as good as your last game, movie, book or business deal. Medavoy explained that the title is an allusion to the delayed success of the “Star Wars” project.
“No one would bite on it and the movie turned out to be a blockbuster,” said Medavoy, referring to the fact that “Star Wars” was, indeed, Lucas’ next one.
In the book, Medavoy reflects on 38 years in the movie industry. More than just a novel, Medavoy says the book is his way of chronicling his life and those who have touched it.
“It’s a journey of over 38 years in Hollywood,” he explained. “What happened to me in those incredible 38 years? When I read it now, I understand what happened. It’s not a diss on Hollywood. I’m just trying to tell what really happened. The book is really a study of a journey of 38 years of making movies. But, it also has some philosophical musings, a look at what it’s like to be the movie business.”
Speaking of journeys, Medavoy took another one three years ago, with his father to Shanghai to see the room where his mother grew up and to remind him of his humble beginnings.
“I was there in 1999. It was a four-by-six room with a bed in it,” said Medavoy. “I took my father with me and he started to cry. We went back to Shanghai and I wanted him to see it once more before he died. He’s 83 and he’s pretty frail. It was the right thing for me to do for him.
“That’s the room that my grandmother had from that man; there’s always been a room in my house for somebody. There’s always been a room for me to help somebody else.”