Word: sheinberg
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...Finding his picture in distribution limbo after Universal Pictures refused to release his film (which he had shot according to the approved script and delivered on budget), Gilliam went public with a full-page plea in Daily Variety to the president of Universal's parent company, MCA: "Dear Sid Sheinberg: When are you going to release my film, Brazil...
...average running time for the last 25 winners of the Best Picture Oscar is a leisurely 2 hr. 26 min.; Universal's only other Christmas release, Out of Africa, runs 2 hr. 34 min.) When Gilliam delivered a streamlined cut that was still six minutes over the limit, Sheinberg determined to withhold the film until Universal minions could prepare their own version: shorter, more "accessible," and with a more "satisfying" ending, which the director believed would fatally distort his film. By this time Gilliam was seeing life imitating Brazil. Like Sam, he was being compromised by a "ruthlessly legal" cadre...
These days the riot squad would have to look for Gilliam in seventh heaven. "The turnaround has been amazing," he says. "A week ago, this film didn't exist. Now it is winning awards and qualifying for the Oscars." For his part, Sheinberg sounds resigned. As he sees it, Gilliam is not the underdog of Brazil but the terrorist. "I personally wouldn't work with Mr. Gilliam again," he says. "But it has nothing to do with his talents as a director. I don't respect his talent as a human being." Cheer up, Sid. A terrific movie has escaped...
...being a producer, he wrote and directed, in ten days, for $10,000, a short film called Amblin', about a boy and a girl hitchhiking from the desert to the Pacific Ocean. The day after Spielberg showed the film at Universal, he was called in by Sidney Jay Sheinberg, head of TV production, and offered a seven-year contract to direct Universal TV series. He was 20 years old. "I quit college," Spielberg says, "so fast I didn't even clean out my locker...
...Universal City tour. The crew was wavering daily between seasickness and shell shock. "It was almost Mutiny on the Bounty," Spielberg recalls, gleefully mixing his analogies, "with me tied to Moby Dick." But audiences responded to the film with the same question that Steven's mentor, Sid Sheinberg, asked when he first saw it: "Isn't there any more?" For Universal there was: Jaws set a new record for film grosses. And Close Encounters solidified Spielberg's reputation for touching minds and pocketbooks with equal acuity...