NO WAY OUT aka Finished with Engines

As promised in the top blog, I have another story to tell about..."telling the truth". I received a call from my agent telling me of an interview with Roger Donaldson over at MGM. I arrived punctually...with a name like Waite I hate to be tardy! As always, we went through the usual opening pleasantries and then got down to specifics. I had read the script - they almost always send you the script first to see if you're interested in shooting it - and Roger, seated comfortable behind a desk roughly the size of a Buick asked: "Ric, how do you see this picture?" Well...I knew it was Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman (whom I'd just finished working with) and it was placed in Washington, DC - a political thriller. So I rather grandly stated I thought it should be very stately. Very square...pristine. Since it was a political story, Gene was a Senator and Costner a naval officer...that seemed like a good idea. Well-----Wrong! Roger confessed he wanted a grainy documentary look. Needless to say, I didn't get the picture. I was very disappointed since when I saw the film and saw th scene in the back of the limo where Kevin and Sean Young really get it on...I was doubly disappointed. Ah well, so you see, sometimes telling the truth doesn't work out the way you'd like. The production manager whom I'd also just worked with on "Uncommon Valor" - Mel Deller and who was responsible for getting me on the short list for interviews walked me out to the elevator and expressed his regrets. A very nice man! As it turned out, when I saw the picture in the theater some months later - no surprise - it wasn't at all grainy - or documentary looking. It was, indeed, a very stately, pristine and square looking film. Go figure.